Stranded in a Nightmare
by Mass Effect Fanatic N7
Summary: The actual story based on my story idea I posted a little while back. Story summery inside. Rated 'T' for blood, violence and some gore. Rating may go up depending on how the story goes. Please read and review.
1. Background Info for Story

**Stranded in a Nightmare**

**(A/N: Here it is folks, my latest story. Before I begin, I want to mention two quick things.**

**First, I just want to warn everyone ahead of time that this story is a loose crossover between Alvin and the Chipmunks and the survival horror video game series, Dead Space. Be advised that it will NOT follow the Dead Space storyline, it will only include some of the elements from the game series. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Dead Space series, the first chapter will have background info for the Dead Space series, and the second chapter will begin the actual story. **

**Secondly, since this story has elements of horror in it, I just want to give a warning right now that there will be blood, violence and some gore. However, for the really gory scenes, I'll put a warning up before such scenes occurs. I really want to keep this a 'T' rating without sacrificing the horror aspect of the story. Also, speaking of keeping it a 'T' rating, there are a two things from the Dead Space series I will NOT include and I'll explain these in the background chapter.**

**Now, without further delay, here is the background chapter. Remember, the next chapter begins the actual story, so jump to the second chapter if you don't want to read this.)**

_**Stranded in a Nightmare story summery**_

When the Munks/Ettes find themselves stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash, they begin to devise a way to get back home. However, they soon begin to realize that this island...this very strange and unusual island...may not be as deserted as they thought. Soon, they come to realize that there exists an evil on this island. An evil they thought could only be found in the worst of nightmares. An evil...not ENTIRELY human...

Follow the six chipmunks in their fight for survival as they uncover the truth behind this ruthless evil, and maybe...just maybe, they may make it out of this nightmare...alive.

_**Dead Space background**_

"Dead Space is a survival-horror video game series and it is set in the distant future. At this point in time, Earth has been mined of all of it's resources. With mankind on the brink of extinction, humans began to expand into the galaxy to colonize worlds. Humans also began to mine planets using "planet-cracker" class vessels.

The game takes place on the U.S.G Ishimura, the first and most famous of these ships, when the vessel goes "dark". This means there's no communication from the vessel going in or out. At this point, a repair team is dispatched to the last known coordinates of the ship. Shortly after arriving, the team comes under attack by unknown alien life, later found out to be "Necromorphs". Only three members survive the attack, one being the main character of "Dead Space", Isaac Clarke. The concept of the game is Isaac working with the other two team members to try to find a way off of the ship as they fight for survival against the Necromorphs and trying to unravel the mystery of their existence."

However, this story doesn't follow the Dead Space storyline. It will only include the necromorphs and the artifact that controls them, the red marker.

_**Necromorphs**_

Easily one of the most mutated and disturbed species of alien I've ever seen anywhere, the necromorphs are abominations of nature that exist for only one purpose: to kill any living being in sight and create corpses for a pure alien breed of necromorph, called the "infector", to reanimate into more of the horde.

Nceromorphs are made from a combination of living alien DNA and a dead corpse; be it human, animal or bacteria. Necromorphs are even sometimes made from more than one corpse or even a hybrid of different species of corpses. The genetic composition of any necromorph, regardless of appearence, is roughly 70% dead corpse (such as a human) and 30% alien DNA.

Necromorphs are simple minded creatures that have no higher level thought processing. This means they have very little intelligence. The only exception to this is a breed of necromorph called the "Stalker". All of their actions are controlled by an artifact called the "red marker", a relic that both controls the necromorph horde and holds DNA codes to create pure alien breeds of necromorph, such as the "Infector."

I call necromorphs, in my words, "alien zombies on steroids." I call them this because of three reasons: a) they are part alien, b) they are the walking dead, and c) they are very, very hard to kill. Unlike traditional zombies, necromorphs can survive losing any limb, even their head! The easiest way to kill them is to cut off their limbs, inflicting horrible damage and taking away their ability to fight. They are the only lifeform that can survive forever without their head. Also unlike traditional zombies, instead of attacking with their bare hands and teeth; necromorphs attack with claws, scythes, blades, barb projectiles, organic explosives, vomit and poison (all made from the bone and tissues of the host.)

Now, you may be wondering "how in the world can they survive losing their head?" While, that's all in the twisted nature of the alien DNA. The infection will take any tissue, organ or anything in the hosts body that isn't needed and dissolve it, breaking it down into material that can be used to give the necromorph more muscle, reshape limbs and even give some breeds organic bulletproof armor! This leaves the chest and stomach areas almost completely empty of any vital organs. Even the brain is broken down and converted into material, thus making them able to survive without there head.

Now one of the things I will NOT include in the story are the breeds of necromorph made from the bodies of dead children and babies. They will not appear AT ALL in this story. I hope that this can help to keep this story a 'T' rating.

_**The Red Marker**_

The "red marker" is a reverse engineered copy of a true aline relic found on Earth, the Black Marker. The red marker is made of technology so advanced that humanity can only understand very slim portions of the marker and how it works. Truth be told, even though the marker is made of metal, it's actually a living entity, well sort of. It's aware of what's around it and is fully sentient. The Red marker controls the necromorph outbreak with a signal that is emitted from the marker. However, against humans, the signal produces a form of dementia in humans, creating vivid and terrifying hallucinations. Over time, this dementia drives people completely insane. So much so that they begin to commit suicide and murders.

HOWEVER, To keep this story a 'T' rating, I WILL NOT show any scenes of suicide (at least not in great detail, anyways.)

**(A/N: well, this is the basic info for Dead Space that will be applied to this story. The next chapter begins the story.) **


	2. Chapter 1: Flight 748 Down

**Chapter 1: Flight 748 Down**

**(From Alvin's perspective; aboard a jet somewhere above the Pacific Ocean)**

"_My god. It's just so...amazing_"

Those were my thoughts as I stared out one of the windows of the 747 passenger jet, gazing down at the massive expanse of water that stretched far off into the horizon. With my eyes scanning the scene before me, sunlight from the near cloudless day reflected from the water; like light glimmering through a diamond.

As I continued to gaze out the window, I heard a familiar voice speak up to my right**.**

"I still can't believe this, Alvin" said a female voice with happiness evident in her voice!

I looked to my right to a pair of ice blue eyes starring back at me, the eyes of Brittany Miller, the girl I've been best friends with since we were little kids.

Brittany and I have been best friend since me and my brothers first met Brittany and her sisters back in preschool. Since then, the six of us have grown close to each other, so much that the six of us now view each other as family. Still, I've grown much closer to Brittany than I did to either of her sisters. I've begun to wonder if maybe there exists more between us than just being friends.

As I looked at her, I spoke up saying, "Can't believe what, Britt?"

Brittany then responded with the same level of excitement saying, "That the six of us are going to Fiji on vacation. I mean, this is the first vacation we've taken together in almost five years!"

Brittany then paused for a few seconds. She then spoke to me with a smile saying, "and I'm looking forward to spending some time alone with you."

After she said this, I could see her cheeks turn a very light shade of pink, and I felt my heart rate speed up a little.

Just then, a familiar voice came from behind our seats.

"Well, it really won't be 'alone time' since we're here" said a male voice. Then, I noticed a familiar face lean up over the back of my seat as I saw one of my younger brothers, Simon staring back at us.

Brittany then looked back at Simon with a slightly annoyed expression. Simon looked at her as she began to say, "Yeah, well it's not like you and Jeanette will be with us all the time." Brittany then began to speak with a smirk on her face, "well, unless you want things to get awkward."

Simon and I chuckled at her remark. Simon then responded to her defensively, saying "relax, Brittany. I was only joking."

Brittany then responded saying, "Yeah, I know."

Soon after, Simon then sat back down in the row behind us. I heard him talking to Jeanette about this trip to Fiji.

I then went to go look out my window again. As I looked towards the ocean, I spotted a random island. The island had huge expanses of jungle covering it, along with a small chain of three mountains. The odd thing was that there was no sign of civilization on the island, or at least that's how it looked from this height. I then turned back to look in the cabin, when I suddenly felt myself do a double take, back out towards the wing of the aircraft.

On the wing, I spotted a strange black figure. The creepy thing was that even with total sunlight, the figure had no features on it. It was almost like an oily, black, shadow person. The figures head seemed to be facing me. I then saw eyes and a mouth suddenly begin to appear on it, almost like they were growing on it. Then, the figure opened it's eyes and mouth, and I felt my heart skip a beat and my body go cold as ice.

Strange static-like light, almost like T.V. static, began to shine from the empty eye sockets and the mouth. The figure now looked more demonic than anything else. It then began to speak, and I heard a dark, sinister voice speak to me as if the figure was talking to me from inside my head.

"_The makers demand bodies..._" said the voice, and as it was speaking, I felt my hair on my neck stand on end.

The figure continued to speak saying, "_...they demand the vessels of the dead, the life ripped from their pathetic grasp.._."

The figure then shouted in a loud voice that made me wince in pain. It felt like my head was going to explode.

"_...and they're going to get them!_" roared the figure with a voice and tone that made my heart nearly stop.

I felt myself get disoriented as the being roared in it's sinister tone of voice. I groaned in pain as I clutched my head with my hands. Then finally...silence. The voice stopped.

I then felt a hand shake my shoulder and I heard a soft voice speak up. The soft voice as much of a contrast to the sinister voice as night and day. The voice spoke with concern saying, "Alvin? Alvin, are you alright?"

I recognized the voice as Brittany's.

Finally, I began to feel the pain in my head fade and I looked at her still reeling over seeing that mysterious figure. I then quickly looked out the window, back towards the wing.

I saw nothing...no figure, no voice...nothing. Just the ocean down below, as well as that random island.

I then heard Brittany's voice build up even more concern as she said "Alvin!"

I then looked back towards Brittany only to see concern and a slight fear in her eyes. "Yeah, Britt" I said in response.

Brittany then said "Are you okay? You just randomly groaned in pain." She then touched my hand. I then heard her speak up with even more concern saying, "and your as cold as ice. You alright?"

I felt an urge to tell her about the figure I saw, about that dark, evil voice. It frightened me just to recall what it sounded like.

I then realized something. How could I prove what I saw, and heard. The figure vanished. "Maybe it was just a hallucination" I thought to myself.

I then looked at Brittany and said "Yeah, I'm fine Britt."

I then saw Brittany look away from me, however; her hand didn't leave from it's place on top of my hand. I could tell she was still worried.

For about the next couple of minutes everything was fine. Then suddenly...I felt the plane begin to shake, at first gently as if being caught in high winds, then it turned more violent. I then heard the drone of the massive jet turbines begin to die down, as if they were shut off. As this was happening, strange RED electrical arcing began to occur all over every electronic on the plane.

Suddenly, I saw Brittany begin to look around panicked. I then saw Simon and Jeanette stand up behind me as they were trying to figure out what was happening.

Across the aisle, I saw Theodore and Eleanor begin to panic too over what was occurring.

Just then I heard a voice ring through the speakers of the cabin. It was the voice of the pilot.

"Everyone, we seem to be experiencing some problems here. Please don't panic, it's un...n...dd...er.." The captain spoke to us, only for static to take over. Then I heard demonic voice roaring through the speakers so loud, that it hurt my ears. I quickly glanced at Brittany to see if she heard it too. Brittany had a terrified and confused expression on her face as she was trying to figure out where the voice was coming from.

The voice spoke in it's dark and sinister tone saying, "_They demand flesh, bone and blood..._"

Then the voice spoke again saying, "_...and it's yours they want!_"

The voice then paused again and shrieked "_embrace your own extinction!"_

Then suddenly...the plane began to lose altitude in a sharp dive. I heard screaming and shouts of panic coming from all over the cabin. I didn't know what to do. I just kept on thinking to myself that this was some sort of nightmare, and that I would wake up any second now. However, this was very real.

I looked to my left to see that one of the engines was on fire. Flames began to consume the whole engine and then soon, an explosion rocked the plane as jet fuel ignited. The explosion ripped a hole in the left of the cabin. Air rushed in from the outside at such speeds that it hurt my skin.

Soon, cracks began to form in the cabin from the hole on the left side. I heard metal groaning and screaming as metal began to be twisted and ripped. Soon, I saw the back end of the plane sheer right off from the front, only two rows ahead of me. I could see the front end of the plane begin to spiral into the ocean.

However, a sharp burst of wind occurred from no where, and soon we found ourselves heading not for the ocean, but for the waters that surrounded the island. I could see the island get larger and larger as we headed for it. I then noticed we were about to impact with the water around the island. I had only two seconds left.

As quickly as I could, I took a deep breath...and prepared for us to impact the water.

I heard a massive splash that seemed to last for a couple seconds, followed by warm water engulf us as the plane hit the water.

After we hit, I slowly opened my eyes to see that the back end of the plane had hit the shallow water that was near the coast of the island. The cabin was filled with water up to our waists.

Seeing that we hadn't actually sunk into the water, I let out the breath I was holding in. We slowly began to stand up after the ordeal we had just gone through. We were shaken up beyond belief.

After checking to see if we had any injuries, which were mostly bruises and cuts from metal shrapnel and things flying about the cabin from the lose of altitude, we began to make our way out of the wreckage. As I jumped out of the wreckage and into the water, I saw bags of luggage and debris strewn about the water.

Until now, we were concerned with not dying from this very strange and disturbing plane crash. However, we were soon faced with a new problem. We were stranded on this unknown island...and we have no way of leaving.

Little did I know though that our nightmare was just beginning...

**(A/N: Some first chapter, huh. Now the Munks/Ettes are stranded on an unknown island. What will happen now? Will they find a way off the island, or will things only get worse? Please read and review!**

**Also, let me explain something. The black figure Alvin saw on the wing was a hallucination created by the Red Marker. As for how the marker brought a plane down, do keep in mind that the Red Marker has advanced alien technology in it. Some of which isn't understood by humans.)**


	3. Signs of Life part 1

**Chapter 2:** **Signs of Life...Just Not the Good Kind Part 1: A Hunter in the Dark **

_**(((!IMPORTANT; PLEASE READ AUTHORS NOTE!)))**_

**(A/N: Here is the next chapter of my story, Stranded in a Nightmare. Before I begin, I just want to apologize for the delay. My new semester of college started up and I've found myself having a hard time to find time to write. Also, this chapter will mark the introduction of Necromorphs into the storyline. Now, just as a word of warning, there will be a part of this chapter that has a lot of blood, some gore and pretty strong violence. So to be safe, I'll mark the beginning and end of that part of the chapter with a disclaimer. Be advised that scenes that require a disclaimer due to intense blood, gore or violence will NOT be very common. I'm doing it in this chapter just to show you all how brutal and terrifying the necromorphs really are, and how they are worse than zombies. For most of the story though, I will scale it down enough to keep the story a 'T' rating, while still keeping the terror and horror aspects of the story. **

**Now, without further delay; onto the story.)**

**(This chapter will be from Jeanette's perspective)**

_Fear..._

_Panic..._

_Disbelief..._

These were the thoughts that raced around my mind like a cheetah; the feelings that coursed though my veins over what had just happened to us.

As I made my way out of the twisted remains of the cabin, I had dozens of questions swirling in my mind from the plane crash, but one stood out above all else...

"...What the hell could have brought down a plane like this?"

Once I made my way to the edge of the cabin's walkway, I jumped down into the warm tropical waters of the Pacific. All around the cabin's exterior, I could see bags of luggage floating in the water, bobbing up and down as the waves of the ocean moved past them. Ahead of me, I saw Alvin standing in the shallow waters looking around, trying to access what had just happened.

I then looked behind me when I heard splashing sounds behind me, only to see that Alvin's brothers and my sisters had jumped out of the cabin and into the water. They all had looks of shock and fear on their faces over what had happened only minutes ago. They began to walk over towards me and Alvin.

I then walked over to Alvin, my body still trembling from the trauma of the crash. I then spoke to Alvin, my voice coming out very uneasy and broken. "Alvin, wh...what the he...hell just happened" I said to him.

I then saw Alvin look back at me. He then spoke to me with fear and confusion in his voice saying, "I have no f_cking clue, Jeanette."

Alvin then looked back towards the others and said to them, "Come on guys. Let's find our luggage and get out of the water."

After we gathered our bags, we then began to make our way towards shore, still gathering as many bags as we could along the way. After all, we had no clue if there was anything useful inside or not.

We finally got ashore. My body felt sore and exhausted from both the incident and trekking through the shallow water. I dropped all the bags I was carrying and I sat down on the sandy shore, not wanting to take a step further. I pulled my legs to me and wrapped my arms around them. I then buried my face in them.

My mind was still reeling over the crash. I felt fear begin to course through me again as I remembered the whole incident, and while it only happened a few minutes ago, it felt like a whole 'nother life. I felt pain in my heart as I remembered the sounds of the other passenger's screaming, crying out for any hope of survival; and I felt nothing but more pain when it hit me that they were all dead now, drowned in the ocean somewhere off this island Still, what I remembered next almost caused my heart to stop...the voice. That evil, sinister, wretched voice. The very words it said only made more terrifying by the dark tone it hissed and roared them in. Just remembering the voice shook every part of my being. I then felt hot tears begin to roll down my cheeks as I couldn't keep the fear and trauma in any longer. My crying turning to sniffling and from sniffling into near sobbing as I broke down.

Just then, I felt something touch me, grabbing my shoulder lightly. What was touching me felt very familiar, and very welcoming and comforting; like a ball of light in a vast sea of darkness. I then felt a hand wrap it's way around my back towards my left arm. I then looked up to my right to see a face that brought comfort to me.

It was Simon.

I felt Simon remove my glasses with his right hand as he began to speak to me in one of the most comforting tones I could think of.

"It's okay, Jean. It's okay" cooed Simon.

I then felt him begin to wipe the tears from my face with his hand, his touch feeling so comforting.

Simon then gently pulled me to him and embraced me in his arms.

"It's okay, Jean. I'm here for you" he spoke again with the same comfort in his voice.

I then felt myself instinctively embrace him. I then felt him begin to rub my back gently, trying to comfort me.

Slowly, I felt my crying stop as I was in the arms of someone who cared for me. I then barely managed a whisper saying to him with a slightly uneasy voice, "thank you."

I then pulled back and looked into Simon's eyes to see that, while there was still fear in them; his concern for me far surpassed the feelings of fear.

I then heard a voice speak up saying, " well, what do we do now?" I then looked behind me to see Brittany looking at Alvin, both were sitting down on the sand as well. Judging from their posture, I could tell they were as sore and tired as I was.

Alvin then spoke up saying, "let's search these bags. Maybe there's something useful."

We then began to open the bags we brought ashore, starting with our own luggage first. I was relieved to see that the clothes inside were wet with sea water, but still usable. I found that some of my other belongings, such as my jewelry and my beach towel, were also intact and still usable. After I finished with my bag, I moved onto the next bag, unzipping it.

As I unzipped it, I saw clothes inside, as well as some medicine in prescription bottles, mainly pain killers and sleeping pills. However, as I moved a shirt aside, I spotted something shiny reflecting sunlight back at me, the light glaring in my eyes. I reached inside and pulled it out, examining the object.

It was a handgun. The silver like metallic finish of the handle and barrel reflected light back at me. The hand gun had a lot of weight to it despite it's size. I then began to look at the slide of the pistol. On it was an inscription that read "D.E. .50"

I then realized what gun it was. This was a Desert Eagle, a .50 caliber semi-automatic handgun made in America. I pulled the magazine out of the pistol grip. I saw that the seven round magazine was fully loaded. I inserted the mag again and set it down on the sand.

I then reached in and pulled out two spare magazines that were at the bottom of the suitcase. Instantly, I began to wonder how someone managed to bring a loaded handgun onto a jet. Still, I counted it as a blessing. I mean, who knows what's on this island.

Soon afterwards, I heard Alvin speak up in a shocked voice saying, "Jeanette, where on Earth did you find a handgun?"

I then looked up to see a Alvin's shocked face staring back at me, and as I looked around, I could see the others giving me similar looks of shock.

I then looked at them and responded saying, "I found it in one of the bags I checked." I then quickly added in saying, "but I still have no clue how someone brought it on the plane."

Alvin then reached out and slowly picked up the handgun. He looked it over and then spoke saying, "alright, at least we have some protection." Alvin then set it back down in the sand, the gun falling with a light thud.

Simon then spoke up in a loud voice saying, "protection from what, Alvin? I mean, what the f_ck could have brought a jet down like that anyways?"

Alvin then looked at his younger brother and responded in the same tone of voice saying, "look, I don't..." Alvin then paused for a second and then resumed speaking in a softer voice. "I don't know, Simon. All I can tell you is this one thing: whatever brought that plane down...definitely wasn't human."

Alvin went back to searching through an aqua blue suitcase, rummaging for anything useful. I was about to go back to searching, when something odd just hit me. If our jet wasn't taken down by a people...then what did take it down? More importantly, how does Alvin know that?

I then looked back up at Alvin to see him pulling out a digital camera from the suitcase. I then spoke to Alvin with curiosity, as well as a bit of caution, in my voice saying, "Wait. Alvin, how do you know that it wasn't human?"

Upon me asking that question, Alvin froze for a few seconds; completely taken by surprise. Alvin seemed unsure of how to respond, until he began to speak to us saying, "Come on, you guys heard that...voice" Alvin said. "There's no way that voice was human, it couldn't be."

Alvin then went back to rummaging through the suitcase. However, I had a feeling that he was hiding something from us. Still, I dismissed that feeling as being caused from the crash.

After almost 30 minutes of searching through bags, we finished, and we were able to find some useful things. In addition to the Desert Eagle and the spare magazines for it, we also found: three large sleeping bags, two bottles of water, some bottles of prescription medication (mainly the pain killers and sleeping pills), a compass, and some bottles of soap. Not much, but it helps.

We soon began to realize that the sun was setting. The sunset shown beautifully across the water, creating a minimal but very necessary sense of comfort.

We then began to try to set up a sort of makeshift "campsite" for the night. Having only three large sleeping bags, we had to share so we wouldn't freeze to death. Alvin and Brittany took one bag. Theodore and Eleanor took another. And I decided to share the final sleeping bag with Simon. I felt slightly uncomfortable about doing it, since Simon and I have never slept in the same bed before (aside from one other time a few years ago). Still, it was either that or freeze during the night.

Alvin said that he was going to build a fire for the night, and he decided to ask me to gather a few pieces of wood from the area for fuel.

I left the others and went off a little into the jungle to gather some fallen branches. However, to be safe, I didn't go far enough in to loose sight of the shoreline. I began to gather branches from the ground, and soon after, I heard a twig snap.

I was right in the middle of grabbing a branch, when I heard that. I froze, not budging an inch. Almost immediately, I got a funny feeling in the back of my mind. It felt like I was being watched by...something. Panic-stricken, I began to look around to see if maybe there was a wild animal nearby. However, I then soon realized something very creepy.

The more I paid attention to it, I realized that there were NO sounds of wildlife. No birds. No reptiles. Not even the sounds of insects. It was so unsettling.

After not hearing anything for a couple more seconds, I began to wonder if maybe I had stepped on a twig. Believing so, I was about to move when I heard another snap. I froze as I felt my blood run cold in my veins. Soon after I began to hear a very weird chirping and clicking sound. I wasn't sure what to make of it. The sounds continued for a few seconds, soon followed by a snort of some kind.

Then suddenly, the sounds died away. The air was still, almost no sounds apart from trees rustling in the light breeze and the sounds of the ocean waves crashing on the shore.

Not wanting to wait around for whatever had made the sounds, I gathered the last branch and dashed towards the shoreline. Soon, I found myself back on the beach, near where the others were.

I approached them with the firewood and I spoke with a stutter saying, "Al..right, I got the fi..firewood."

The others stopped what they were doing to look at me with concern. Brittany then spoke up saying, "Jeanette, are you okay? You sound...spooked."

Unsure of what to make of those weird sounds I heard in the jungle, I simply answered saying, "um, yeah. I'm fine."

I then handed Alvin the firewood, and soon, he was able to get a fire going by rubbing two sticks together.

With the sun almost set, we decided to change into some fresh clothes from our own bags. My sisters and I went behind some plants near the jungles edge to change in privacy. I felt uneasy about entering the jungle again, especially since it was darker than before. However, I was with my sisters.

After getting changed, we went back to the fire and got into our specific sleeping bags. After I climbed in, I soon felt the bag moving, followed by another person getting in. I looked behind me to see Simon staring back at me, part of his face glowing a comforting orange from the light of the fire reflecting off his skin.

Simon spoke in a soft voice saying, "Relax, Jean. It's just me." I managed to give him only a weak smile, due to how tired I was, as well as what we all went through today with surviving a plane crash. I rolled back onto my side, facing away from the fire. As I stared into the dark abyss that was the jungle in the dark, I began to noticeably shake over the thought of what could be lurking in there. What could have made those strange sounds I heard while gathering firewood. Soon though, I felt an arm gently wrap around my stomach. I then felt Simon begin to stroke my hair as he whispered in my ear saying, "It's okay, Jean. I'm here and I won't let anything bad happen to you." I then heard a rustling, soon followed by a light thud as something dropped just above the sleeping bag. I looked up to see the Desert Eagle handgun within arms reach above me.

I then looked back at Simon and cautiously whispered, "Simon?"

I then heard a soft whisper respond saying, "Just to help you feel safe."

I then went back to looking into the jungle. Having Simon next to me, with his arm wrapped around me, made me feel so safe and secure. Simon stroked my hair for a while, obviously trying to help me fall asleep. Soon, I began to feel my self slowly drifting into a well deserved sleep.

**(A few hours later)**

I awoke to very unusual, and yet familiar sound. I felt my blood run cold as I remember where I heard it. I began to hear clicking and chirping noises again. From what it sounded like, they were close...really close. I slowly opened my eyes and stared in shock at what I saw. My mind froze, my blood almost running cold.

In the dark, there was a figure standing there, outlined very faintly by the fire. It had a really unusual posture, almost as if it was hunched over. It's legs seemed to be in an unusual form. My eyes drifted down to see a bloody foot on top of a rock. I saw razor sharp talons coming off of the bloody foot. My eyes went up to see the outline of what seemed to be the figures chest. The chest was very deformed, almost as if it was purposely mutilated. I gazed in terror as I saw spikes lining the edge of the deformed chest. However, when my eyes reached the figures head; I almost had a heart attack.

The figure's head was definitely Not human. It was very deformed and almost seemed to resemble a twisted cow's skull. If that wasn't enough, I saw red, glowing eyes staring back at me from the dark, but it wasn't two eyes...it was FOUR. Four red eyes stared back at me from the dark. Looking just below I could see rows of razor sharp teeth, glistening with blood and drool in the light of the fire. That did it in for me. I didn't know what to do. I screamed bloody murder at the top of my lungs.

I heard startles of surprise around me, not just from the six of us; but I also got a startled sound from this being. Soon, the being let loose a demonic shrill shriek that sounded like a demon.

Upon seeing the others move, the being sprinted off into the jungle. Leaves crunching and twigs snapping as the being ran off at an ungodly pace. The last thing I heard was an echoing calling sound of some sort that seemed to come from far in the jungle. It wasn't like it was calling for help though. It was more like it was a call of...surprise.

Little did I know of the surprises that awaited us...

**(A/N: Well fellow readers, there we have it. The first breed of Necromorph introduced into the story...the Stalkers. Stalkers are necromorphs made from a combination of animal and human corpses, mixed with alien DNA, to create one of the most intelligent species of necromorph there is. They are known for being one of the most curious breeds of necromorph, both in behavior and biologically. Stalkers mainly hunt in packs of around 5 to 7, with one being the pack leader. However, they are sometimes encountered separate from a pack. In fact, the stalkers are so ruthless in hunting in packs and so well know for pack tactics, that the Visceral studios ( the company that makes Dead Space) has called them "the raptors of the Dead Space series." In fact, they even share some similar sounds between them and the raptors from the movie, Jurassic Park. **

**Anyways, I hoped you liked the first part of the chapter. Please tell me what you think of the chapter. I really tried to make this as creepy as I could. Btw, for the disclaimer at the beginning of the chapter, that is going to apply for part two of this chapter. I'll try to update soon with more moments of terror and plot twists as the mystery of this island, and the necromorphs, starts to take shape. Please Read and Review!**

**Until next time...)**

**-MEFN7**


	4. Signs of Life part 2

**Chapter 2:** **Signs of Life...Just Not the Good Kind** **Part 2: A Lone Survivor**

**(A/N: Alright folks, here is the next chapter of Stranded in a Nightmare. I'm so sorry about the long delay with getting this chapter out. I've been preoccupied with college work, friends and family, and the very addictive multiplayer of two Xbox 360 games I play, Modern Warfare 3 and Mass Effect 3.**

**Now I do want to mention that I have made a major change to the structure of this story. Instead of this chapter having two parts to it, I will now break it down into three parts. I'm doing this because A) I feel it will make more sense and B) I came up with a great opportunity for all you readers to contribute to the story. However, I will explain this at the end of part two of this chapter. **

**Now, without further delay, onto the story.**

(From Jeanette's perspective)

My heart was racing a mile a minute at the being that I just saw staring back at me from the darkness. Every part of my body felt as cold as ice as a feeling of paralyzing fear washed over me. I could barely move a muscle. Soon, I heard the sounds of footsteps rush over to me soon followed by a familiar voice speaking with much concern in its' tone. It was Brittany's voice.

"Jeanette, what happened? What's wrong" she shouted to me, panic and concern ever evident in her voice?

My body still felt rigid from the shock of seeing that...that beast that was standing not even 15 feet from me. I wasn't able to respond to my older sister. Every fiber of my mind was still scarred with the image of that things ungodly and horrifying appearance. The mutated and mutilated chest, lined with spikes on it that seemed to be a bones from the rip cage, those razor sharp talons, almost six inches in length, that could carve through flesh with ease, and even worse...those red glowing eyes. Those eyes that pierced right through mind. They felt like they could dig into your soul, paralyzing you with fear beyond imagine.

To think of how close that...demonic creature had been standing to me, starring back at me from the darkness like a panther stalking it's prey in the dead of night. The thought of what those teeth could have done to me...to us. I couldn't hold back the thought anymore. I felt hot tears begin to cascade down my cheeks as I kept on envisioning the horrors of what it would have done to us.

I then felt someone lightly shake my shoulder, trying to get my attention. Their touch was soft, comforting and very welcoming to me. I slowly looked up to my right to see Simon starring back at me with nothing but concern and fear over why I had screamed bloody murder.

"Jean, it's okay" Simon cooed to me trying to help me. He gently pulled me into a very welcoming and tight embrace. He then spoke softly saying, "What happened, Jean?"

I tried to answer him, my voice only coming out in a stutter and broken up from both the fear and panic I felt in my body. "I...I...saw something...some kind of...creature st...starring back at me from the ju..jungle."

I then heard Brittany speak up saying with both curiosity and caution in her voice "what was it? A wild animal of some kind?"

I tried to answer my older sister, but that creature's appearance immediately entered my mind again, and I felt myself go completely silent...deadly silent. I couldn't even whisper.

I then slowly shook my head 'no'.

I then saw Simons' left hand inch closer to the Desert Eagle handgun now, while he still held me in a comforting embrace.

Simon then spoke in a tone of concern, fear and inquiry saying, "Well, then what was it Jean?"

I then managed to only answer with a voice barely above a whisper saying, "I don't know. It almost looked like...I don't know."

I then heard Alvin speak up saying, "come on, Jean. Tell us what you saw."

I then slowly looked up and starred at them, unsure of what there response would be. I then spoke with uncertainty saying, "It almost looked like some type of a mutilated alien corpse."

I then saw the others give me looks of curiosity and confusion and concern. I couldn't blame them. If I was in their shoes, it would sound like a wild accusation from a mentally unstable person. I then responded defensively saying, "well, that's the best way I can describe it. I don't know what else to call it."

I then heard Alvin begin to speak up saying, "Jeanette, are you sure..."

However, he was then interrupted by a sound that pierced the almost silent night air. It was a scream of an unnatural and aggressive nature. While it didn't sound close, I t was still loud enough to hurt my eardrums. It lasted for almost two seconds and then died down to an almost low, bellowing like sound that occurred at irregular intervals. Soon, I began to hear leaves and other debris on the floor of the jungle begin to snap and crunch as it sounded like something was walking though the jungle. The footsteps sounded slow and unsteady. I could also hear an almost sickening like squishing and cracking sound that seemed to keep in pace with debris on the jungle floor moving.

I began to panic as thoughts began to race through my mind. I kept on thinking over and over, "Oh god, please don't let this be the end. Don't let us die. Please don't."

I then saw Simon's hand rush for the Desert Eagle that was on the ground. He picked it up and cocked the hammer back, ready to defend us from...whatever was moving in the jungle. It was almost impossible to see into the pitch black void that was the jungle. However, I felt my blood run ice cold in my veins as I saw a tall, gaunt, black silhouette move slowly and irregularly in the jungle. I could just barely see the outline of it. It had an almost human like appearance to it, but just barely. I then gasped as I saw it turn it's head to me as I saw two red orbs shining back at me from the darkness. When the creature saw us, it stopped moving and just kept starring at us. It starred us down for at least 10 seconds. We didn't dare budge or even make a sound.

Then I heard a branch snap further down in the jungle. The thing immediately turned it's heard to face the sound and growled loud and deep. It then let out a scream and took off running in a very awkward and unstable fashion out of sight towards the sound, almost like it found better prey to hunt than us.

As soon as it was out of sight, I felt myself let out a breath I was holding. Alvin then spoke up with fear and shock in his voice saying, "what the fuck was that?"

I then spoke up defensively saying, "you see. I told you I saw something in the jungle."

However, I was really confused about what happened. The figure I saw starring back at me from inside the jungle just now, and the hunched over figure with the four red glowing eyes were definitely not one and the same. I felt myself begin to panic as I began to wonder if there were more of those...things on this island. Even more so, I began to question the variety with these creatures.

I then heard Theodore speak up saying with both fear and some relief in his voice, "well, whatever it was, it looks like it's gone now."

I looked behind me to see Theodore and Eleanor both sitting on the ground, holding each other close to them. I could see fear and shock in Theodores' eyes. My younger sister was still in shock from seeing that thing walking through the jungle, but she seemed to be taking it better than Theodore was.

Upon seeing that the mysterious being walking through the jungle had left from sight, Simon slowly cocked the hammer of the Desert Eagle back forwards to it's safety position, taking care not to strike the primer of the bullet in the chamber and causing a potentially lethal misfire.

Simon then turned to us and said "Alright, I don't think it's a good idea for all of us to be asleep at the same time. Not with what just happened. I think it would be best if we..." However, Simon was then interrupted by a loud scream that echoed throughout the jungle, soon followed by a series of rapid and loud bangs that pierced the night air. The scream didn't sound like it was from the being that we saw walking stalking through the jungle just a minute ago. The scream sounded very different. It sounded...human.

I instantly recognized the loud bangs that pierced the night air. They were in rapid succession and had a certain pitch to them.

They were gunshots.

Soon, we heard debris on the jungle floor crunching rapidly and leaves rustling as it sounded like something was moving at a fast pace through the jungle. I began to feel fear coursing through me when I realized the direction the footsteps were headed.

They were heading for us.

I then heard three gunshots that sounded even closer to us now than just a few moments ago, soon followed by the strange squishing sounds we heard before, from that being we saw awkwardly walking through the jungle a few minutes ago.

I heard a loud, bellowing scream filled with rage and aggression that didn't sound too far off from the gunshots that sounded off just a moment ago.

I saw that Simon now had pulled out the Desert Eagle again and cocked the hammer back. He then sternly said to us, "everyone, get behind me! NOW!"

We took cover behind Simon as the sounds moving through the jungle got closer and closer. I could tell by Simons' posture that he was hell bound and determined to defend us to the death with the Desert Eagle handgun.

The sounds continued to get closer and closer. Soon, I saw the plants in front of us shaking as something was literally right behind them.

Then suddenly, in that second, a figure ran out from the bushes. Simon, upon seeing it, fired one .50 caliber round towards the figure. The round hit the trunk of a tree next to the figure, splintering the wood a little.

Immediately, I heard a voice that shouted out saying "Damn it, hold your fire! Don't shoot!"

The voice was a human voice...a male human voice.

Immediately, Simon then shouted in response saying, "And why should I? Who the hell are you?" Simon didn't even budge the Desert Eagle from the man's direction as he was unsure of this guy or his intentions. I couldn't blame Simon on that. Not with what we saw moving through the jungle.

The man standing near the edge of the jungle just shouted back in response saying, "I'll tell you later. Right now, I've got some fucking abomination that attacked me in the jungle and it's not far behind me! We need to move! If we don't run now, we'll all be dead!"

Just then a loud bellow sound right near the jungle's edge. Soon the plants at the jungles edge began to rustle as something was now moving through them.

Simon quickly then looked at the man and said "then help cover me! I'm the only one with a weapon."

The man immediately rushed to Simon's side and raised his weapon at the rustling plants at the jungle's edge. The weapon the man had seemed to be a rifle of some kind with a scope on it.

Then suddenly, a tall gaunt figure staggered out from the bushes, each step it took making a sick squishing sound.

We all gasped and screamed at what we saw.

The figure had a very bony and almost skeleton like appearance to it. The flesh covering its' chest was a pale greyish-pinkish color and had exposed patches of muscle. Its' limbs were very unusual. They had a spindly like and disgusting appearance to them making the limbs look like they were rotting to a degree. The arms had large, scrawny hands on the end of them...or at least something that resembled a hand. The "fingers" each had a blade on them, which had the sickening appearance of being made from bone. The legs had the same scrawny appearance as the arms, but were slightly longer and they seemed to form almost a foot like appendage at the end. The figure had the tattered remains of some type of uniform on it that barely covered most of the chest. The head was really disturbing in that it had three tentacles that came out of the things head that drove straight into it's chest, forming a neck meant for support more than anything else. The head itself was very deformed with glowing red eyes and no lower jaw structure at all.

The being let out a loud bellow sound as it them came charging at us. Simon and this mysterious man began to fire off bullet after bullet into the strange creature, while the rest of us dispersed from the camp site, running from the thing. We all kept our heads down and took cover behind whatever we could. I had ran and hid behind a large boulder. I just kept on whimpering to myself saying, "oh god, don't let us die! I don't want to die!"

Each round that was fired into the creature was doing some damage as evidenced by blood splattering on the ground and flesh being torn off, and yet the creature seemed unfazed. The creature charged towards Simon and reared back an arm, ready to slice Simon apart. Simon sidestepped the creatures' attack just as the arm came down on where Simon was. Simon and the mysterious man began to run backwards from the charging and aggressive being as they kept firing at it. The creature still kept going after Simon, bellowing as it charged at him.

Simon had just ejected the spent magazine in the pistol and had just reached for another when the creature shot out a tentacle towards Simon form its' neck. Simon was caught off guard as the tentacle wrapped around his neck. The creature thrashed it's head about trying to harm Simon. Simon had dropped his pistol and was grabbing the creatures' tentacle, desperately trying to free it from his neck. However, I could hear distinctive choking sounds as Simon was unable to breathe from being choked by this creature.

I had looked over the boulder I was behind to witness in terror as I saw Simon being strangled by this creature. I screamed out at the top of my lungs saying "OH GOD, SIMON!" I began to feel my self break down and cry as I was witnessing the only guy I ever truly loved getting attacked by this beast.

And there was nothing I could do. That is, until I saw the Desert Eagle on the ground.

I then saw a chance to save Simon.

"No, Simon. I won't let you die. ' I thought to myself in determination.

I then ran out from the boulder towards Simon. I didn't feel any fear or anything holding me back. Not when Simons' in danger.

Once I got to the gun, I picked it up in an instant and fired off all seven bullets in the magazine at the creature. I kept on screaming, "let him go you piece of filthy shit!"

I then heard the infamous 'dead mans trigger click', which meant that there weren't any bullets left in the chamber. However, the rounds I did fire got its' attention as the being seemed to release its' tentacle from Simon, much to my relief. However, it them turned it's attention on me. With one swing, it brought the back of its' across my body, knocking me off my feet with ease. I felt myself fly back a few feet and crash into the hard ground. All the air was knocked out of me as I felt a horrible pain in my side from where the creature hit me. The creature than walked over to me and reared it's blade tipped claws back, ready to tear into me.

I heard my Sister Eleanor scream in terror, "JEANETTE!"

I couldn't move due to the pain. There was nothing I could do. I closed my eyes and cringed waiting for the inevitable.

However, I heard a rapid burst of automatic weapon fire coming from my right, the rounds tearing into the being. The creature let out a groan as it was hit.

I slowly opened my eyes to see the creature back away as more rounds continued to tear into the beings chest.

I barely managed to look to my left to see the mysterious man fire full auto into the creature with his assault rifle.

The man ran and got in between me and the creature and shouted saying, "Your not going to kill anyone, you rotting goddamn meat sack!" He fired off two clips worth of bullets into the being. He must have done something right because the creature began stagger back and forth as it seemed like it was stunned.

The creature then fell forwards and hit the ground in a sickening splat, the limbs and head shooting off from the creature in five different directions.

I thought it was all over. Then I saw something that made me question every little goddamn thing in the world.

The creature itself was dead...but its' limbs WEREN'T.

The limbs and even the head of the creature began to crawl around the ground, slithering like demon possessed snakes from hell.

By now, the pain in my body had dwindled enough that I could finally move without restraint. I slowly got up and began to move as fast as I could for the Desert Eagle. However, I heard a shrieking sound as I saw one of the creatures' arms leap into the air at me. I quickly sidestepped the arm. It then landed on the ground and seemed to be aware that it lost the element of surprise, so it attempted to scurry away. However, I managed to grab the arm part of it and the arm actually began to trash about trying to attack me.

I then threw the limb on the ground and began to stomp on it with all of my might. With each stop, the limb screeched. Finally, it stopped moving.

I then continued running for the Desert Eagle and as I was running towards it, I could see the mysterious man fighting off the three other limbs. The other arm leapt in the air at him, the limb screeching and it's blades ready to kill. However, as the limb flew through the air at him, he fired a burst of bullets from his assault rifle. The bullets tore into the limbs' flesh, nearly tearing the hand like appendage from the limb. The limb fell limp on the ground behind him. One of the legs tried to grapple onto him from behind, but the man shot it in mid air. The final limb leapt into the air at him from his right, and it actually managed to attack him with a blade, cutting him across the chest. I didn't hear an sound of pain from the man as he stomped down on the legs' trunk and then used the stock of his rifle to beat it to death.

I finally reached the Desert Eagle and picked it up. Then , from nowhere, I felt something leap onto my back an wrap something tightly around my neck. Instantly, I began to panic at the feeling of bring strangled. I then hear the same deep, low bellowing sound that the intact creature was emitting before. I then realized that the head of the creature was trying to kill me. I trashed about trying to get the head to let go of my neck, but to no avail. I felt my vision begin to fade as it felt like my very life force was being ripped from my body. Then suddenly I heard a sickening smack behind me, followed by feeling the tentacles release from my neck. I collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. I then spun around to see Brittany with a thick wooden stick in her hands, most likely part of a tree branch. She then brought the branch down on the head over and over, the head letting out screeches with each hit. Finally, the head fell silent and Brittany hit it once more as hard as she could for good measure. She then slammed the now bloodied tree branch into the ground as she was breathing hard.

I looked at Brittany as she then spoke to me saying, "Nothings going to kill one of my sisters when I'm around." I nodded to her in response, still completely shaken up over what happened.

I then began to look around to make sure that there wasn't something else waiting to attack us. However, our campsite was silent, the jungle was silent and more importantly, all of the parts of that creature were silent.

As I looked around, I noticed something that tore my heart in half, as well as something that shattered any relief of surviving something as horrifying as this.

Towards the area where the mysterious man came from the jungle with that creature chasing him, I saw Simon, laying down on the ground...and he wasn't moving!

"Oh my god, SIMON" I cried out as I ran towards him as fast as I could move. Once I reached his side I dropped to the ground, unsure of what to do.

At the sight of Simon, my first and true love, and the man I had known for almost all of my life, laying down on the ground unresponsive; I felt every fiber of my being break down. I began to feel tears flow unchecked. I kept on sobbing as I was trying to speak saying, "Oh, go..d! No! S...Si...Simon! No, y...ou can't be..." It felt like I could barely even speak the next word. "No...yo..u jus..t can'..t be. Why couldn't I ge...t to you so...oner! Just...NO!"

I felt myself sob uncontrollably. I then heard the sounds of footsteps rush towards me. I then heard voices say, "Oh my god!" And "No, he can't be...gone!"

Soon I heard a voice speak up saying, "Move aside, I know CPR." I weakly looked up to see the mysterious man starring down at me. The man then got down next to Simon and began to preform CPR, compressing Simons' chest and breathing into his mouth.

One set...no response.

I felt my self tear up as I began to sob again.

Two sets...no response.

I felt every speck of hope begin to leave my body, being torn from me as I pictured losing my one true love.

Three sets... "Wait" said the mysterious man, unsure of if he was right! He checked Simons' pulse. "I got a pulse" he said relieved!

I looked back down at Simon, starring at his motionless face. Then, I slowly saw his eyes begin to flutter open. Very slowly, he turned his head to look at us. He then turned his head to face me and he said weakly, "Je...Jean? Is that you?"

Upon hearing his voice, I felt hope and compassion begin to return to my soul as I starred him in the eyes and said softly, "Yes, Si. It's me." I then reached down and pulled him into a gentle embrace, thankful that I didn't lose him. I mentally cringed at the very thought of living without him. As I embraced him, my mind kept telling my body to never let go. Slowly, I began to feel Simon hug me too. His touch was the most relieving thing I could think of right now. I then heard Alvin and Theo speak up saying, "Thank god your alright, bro."

I then released my arms from him. I then heard Alvin speak up saying, "Si, are you alright? Can you get up?"

I began to panic at the thought that Simon may have suffered a spinal injury or nerve damage.

I then heard Simon heard Simon speak up saying "yeah, I think so."

I then saw Simon begin to struggle to get up, and upon seeing him struggle, Brittany and Alvin helped pull him up nice and easy.

I then heard the mysterious man speak up saying, "ok, let's get him someplace where he can rest. He seems very weak."

Brittany and Alvin helped support Simon as he made his way over to our sleeping bag. I wished we could do better for Simon, but it was all we had.

Alvin and Brittany helped Simon into the sleeping bag. Simon then spoke up softly saying, "thanks, guys."

I went over by Simons' side and sat next to him. I then spoke up saying, "well Simon, thank this guy here. If it wasn't for him..." I couldn't finish the last part as it mentally hurt too much.

The mysterious man came up towards us, his rifle slung around his back. I then heard Brittany speak up saying, "You never told us your name, stranger."

The mysterious man then reached into what appeared to be a pocket on his bulletproof vest. He then pulled out two shinny, stamped metal tags strung around a metal chain. He then tossed them to Britt saying, "My name is Second Liutentient Alenko, and I run...used to run security on the island."

**(A/N: Again sorry about the HUGE delay for this upload. Now, I'm not really sure if I did a good job on this chapter or not, so please review, either positive or negative. I do want to mention that I do accept anonymous reviews on all my stories. I'll try to update soon next time, but college is really getting in the way many days.**

**The necromorph breed encountered in this chapter is called the Divider. It is unique in the fact that it is five necromorphs in one. It is made of reanimated human limbs attached to a limbless torso. The Divider primarily attacks with blade tipped claws it has on both arms, but it is also capable of strangling and even decapitating it's victim with a tentacle like limb attached to the head, which is actually made from nerve endings tightly coiled around each other. When critically damaged, the divider collapses to the ground and breaks apart into 5 separate limbs called components. These limbs move across the ground independently and attempt to attack their victims in various ways. The head is even capable of decapitating it's victim and taking over their body. **

**Now for the opportunity to all you readers. As you now know, this island has/had a security force on it ( and I'm not going to spoil the surprise of why), so if you want to, send in your character ideas for OC's in my story. And don't worry, I'll put credit where credit is due for any OC's. Now, what I need is the OC's: name, gender, military rank (such as private, sargent, commander, etc.) and their service background, meaning what military group they used to be part of, like the U.S. Delta Force, U.S. Army, British S.A.S., Russian Spetsnaz, German GSG9, etc. Or if you want to, just tell me if they have regular training or special forces training. I'm going to need five or six OC's for the next part of the story.**

**Until next time...)**

**-MEFN7 **


	5. Signs of Life part 3

**Chapter 2 Signs of Life...Just Not the Good Kind Part 3: How It All Began**

**(A/N: Alright readers, here's the final part of this chapter. Finally, now some light will be shed on the mysterious truth of this island and the Necromorphs. However, I have a few things to mention first.**

**First, I'm happy to say that I was actually able to get an update for this chapter out faster than the last update. I do plan on updating sooner from here on out, but I have to put family and College first before Fanfiction though. **

**Secondly, I want to thank those who haven't forgotten this story yet, what with the huge delay for the last update (which I hope will never happen again), and an even bigger thanks to those who reviewed too. To be honest, I didn't really expect that people on this archive would be all too interested in a story like this, especially with it being a crossover with a legendary survival horror videogame series that, as far as I know, only two writers on this archive have played before. To get ten reviews for three chapters and multiple people adding the story to their favorites really means a lot to me as a writer.**

**Finally, I just want to say that this is the part of the chapter that I was talking about from back in part one that will have blood, some gore and intense violence. **

**Now, with that out of the way, on with the story.)**

**(From Brittany's perspective)**

"Wait, hold on a minute Alenko" I said to the man clad in a military uniform and bullet proof vest.

The others looked at me as I continued to speak to the Alenko about something that completely puzzled me.

"Okay, what exactly do you mean by 'used' to run security on the island? I mean, what could possibly be all the way out here on a random island in the Pacific Ocean that would require a security force?"

I noticed that after I brought up the question to Alenko, the other began to have expressions like they were wondering the same exact thing. After all, we knew absolutely nothing about this island, this small, infinitesimal speck of land in the vast expanses of the ocean. This island of which seemed more than just a random spot of land in the ocean, but rather, it now feels like it holds some dark secrets of it's own. Dark secrets being made ever more possible by all of the events that have occurred within the last 24 hours.

As I stared at Alenko as we all sat by the campfire, both shaken up from a second encounter with one of those...those...monsters, and desperately seeking answers to the existence of this strange island and the mysteries that shroud it; I noticed that Alenko began to have a look of uncertainty and confusion as it seemed like he was struggling to find a way to explain the island to us...or maybe, over something that he didn't know.

Alenko then looked up at us and spoke with hesitation saying, "look...I'm not really supposed to talk about it. I signed a non-disclosure agreement and if they found out that I told anyone unauthorized about what's here on the island..."

Suddenly, I heard Simon speak up saying, "wait a minute, Alenko. Who exactly do you mean by 'they'?

After Simon spoke, I could see Alenko visibly begin to look nervous as he was in thought. He didn't say anything. He looked like he was torn between telling the truth about this island and...something else.

I then heard Alvin speak up saying, "Come on Alenko. We need to work together here if we what to have any chance of surviving whatever's going down on this island. Any information you have could be the difference between life or death here...for all of us."

I saw Alenko glance over at Alvin as he was still appearing reluctant to tell us. Alvin then continued to coax him saying, "besides, we need to know that we can trust you and you can trust us, so tell us what you know and let that be a symbol of trust."

I stared at Alvin, mouth agape. In all my time of knowing Alvin, I would have never expected such a logical statement to actually come from him, or that he could even be a voice of reason in times like this. I noticed that the rest of us had similar looks of disbelief on their faces.

Alenko then looked up at us and let out a groan. He then spoke up saying, "alright, fine. If it'll be of any help for us to survive here...fine." Alenko then paused and then spoke up saying, "I used to run security, or at least a security team here, because of the company and the research they were doing here."

I then heard Jeanette interrupt Alenko as she then spoke up saying, "What company are you talking about exactly?"

Alenko then responded saying, "An independent and freelance research firm called ExoAmp. Very few outside the company know that they even exist, on part due to research projects classified as above Top Secret and the fact that they are a small firm, but they still have a lot of money, resources and influence. ExoAmp built a hidden research lab on this island, with the lab built within the mountains on this island themselves."

After hearing this, I still felt confused to a large degree, but still, some things were now making a little bit of sense.

However, it seemed like we now knew only the very surface of the truth about this island.

I then spoke saying, "What else do you know about ExoAmp, Alenko? Do you know what they were researching?

Alenko then shook his head sullenly and said, "Sadly, I don't know what they were researching, since I was never stationed on lab security. All I know is that these...creatures most likely came from the lab since my security unit received an automated emergency signal regarding a containment breech in the labs." He then paused and said, "I don't know if other units got the signal or not."

Theodore then spoke up saying, "okay, so what happened to your security unit anyways? Are they coming to get you or something?"

Alenko then immediately seemed sullen again. He looked away from us and seemed to cringe as he was in thought. He then looked back at us and spoke with his voice breaking up a little, "No, they're not coming."

"Why" asked Alvin?

Alenko then spoke with an uneven voice and spoke in a depressed tone saying, "because...they're all dead. At least as far as I know. I don't think there would be anyway to survive the type of ambush my unit and I ran into en route to the labs."

After hearing him speak this, I felt so sorry for Alenko. I felt sorry that he lost so many soldiers under his command, and more so since it seems like he is blaming himself for losing them against a threat that no one could have ever been prepared for. Just from looking at him, I could see it in his eyes. The fact that he's beating himself down for this, it just...

I then heard Jeanette speak up to Alenko in a soft, tender voice. She said, "Alenko, I know that it must be very painful for you to be going over those events again. I mean, I'm not a military soldier or a squad leader so I can't understand the pain of losing a squadmate under your command. I just want to say that...I'm sorry for what happened, but if you can, could you tell us to any degree what happened? Your knowledge on what these...things can do could help you save our lives in the long run, and may even help us to find a way to get rid of these things once and for all. You could avenge the lives of those you lost by putting these abominations down and giving your squadmates eternal rest."

Alenko glanced up at Jeanette and he then spoke in a monotone voice and said "Well, it may help us..."

He then took a deep breath and breathed out slowly. He then looked to us and spoke saying, "we were stationed at a barracks facility about 1 mile away from the research labs. We suddenly got an emergency transmission from research lab 1 over a secure channel that mentioned that the containment protocols for a high risk experiment had failed and that immediate armed security intervention was required. We had gathered our gear and took a armored convoy of two troop transport trucks and two armed light assault vehicles, HUMVEE's to be exact, to the research lab. We followed a route through the jungle..." Alenko then paused for a second before saying, "then that's when shit hit the fan and hit it hard..."

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_**This section of the story contains blood, gore and strong violence, as well as death. If you do not wish to read, please scroll down to the next set of warning labels.**_

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**(Flashback: From Second Liutentient Alenko's perspective; about 11 hours ago)**

"Liutentient Alenko, do you know what to expect when we get to the labs? Do we know anything about possible hostile forces" asked a voice to my left, from the drivers seat of the HUMVEE that I was riding in?

I looked to my left to see Staff Sargent Yuri Guruski glacing back at me, waiting for an answer. Yuri is my unit's second-in-command and a friend of mine. Yuri used to be part of the Russian Spetsnaz, an elite army of special forces commandos, back about 10 years ago. Around that same time, he decided to end his service in the Spetsnaz, and soon after; he chose to become a mercenary, using his special forces training and almost a decade of combat skill to turn a profit for himself. Yuri brings new meaning to the phrase "as tough as a Russian bear." He's killed some enemies in the most brutal ways you could possibly imagine, and I've even seen him get hit by bullets during combat and he still kept fighting.

I then spoke to Yuri saying, "Not a thing Yuri. All we got from the lab was an automated emergency signal, which I find very...unusual." I finished that last part with suspicion in my voice.

Yuri then spoke saying, "why is that so odd? The labs are set up like that so the scientists or the security teams don't need to actually contact us."

I then spoke up logically saying, "yeah, but that's just the thing. They still have the means to contact us from the labs, what with the mid range comm headsets we have on our helmets and the radios in the labs themselves. You think that they would send more than just an automated emergency signal. Someone should have at least told us something about the situation."

Yuri then responded saying, "well, you don't think their...dead up in the labs. Do you?"

I then said, "I highly doubt that, Yuri. Not with 100 security personal and 60 scientists up there." I then added saying, "and do remember that ExoAmp does give it's researchers a handgun for emergencies."

"Yeah, your right" said Yuri simply.

"I don't think that" spoke up a female, hispanic voice from behind me.

I looked in the rear mirror to see Corporal Rosalina Lopez starring back at me as she held her M4A1 assault rifle in her lap. Rosalina is a former medic for the U.S. Army. She used to be part of a Army squad that held a long service record in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is until her squad got disbanded by the U.S. Army after they went AWOL (or Absent With Out Leave) during a mission that was very controversial. The mission she was part of involved clearing a town in Iraq of any hostile insurgent forces and all civilians so the Army could move armored convoys through it. However, the army wanted it clear by any means necessary. That involved shooting unarmed civilians if they needed to get the job done. Her squad leader found that the people of the town were unwilling to leave voluntarily, even after the squad leader told them of the only other alternative. The squad decided that killing unarmed civilians was not only against the rules of the Geneva Convention, but also an immoral act. **(A/N: the Geneva Convention was a formal meeting between the top military superpowers during it's time period, the United States included, which basically wrote the book on what is 'legal' and not in warfare. Such as executing unarmed prisoners of war, or P.O.W.'s, and killing civilians intentionally during combat.) **Her unit then disbanded and left the army. Soon after, she decided to go into mercenary work as a squad medic.

Rosalina, in my mind, was always a fine addition to my security team. She had a good military background and I admired her personality. She always looks out for the better of the group, trying to help resolve issues within my unit. She cares about the lives of my unit and looks out to protect them, which now makes since why she became a medic.

I then spoke up to her and said "and why not?"

She responded saying "we've been on this island for almost five years now, and we still know nothing about that those brains in that labs have been doing. For all we know, they could have been testing a new nerve gas, or working with dangerous animals of some sort."

"True" I said simply to her.

I looked back ahead at the dirt road that wound through the jungle, covered from the air by the thick jungle canopy. We kept on driving along with the convoy that was moving my unit of 25 soldiers. Suddenly, I heard that soldier who was manning the mounted M134 minigun on our HUMVEE shout out through his mic saying "Stop! I repeat all vehicles stop moving and shut down engines! I just saw movement in the jungle!"

Yuri immediately slammed on the brakes, bringing us to a halt. The transport truck behind us almost crashed into us, but managed to stop just in time.

I immediately spoke through my mic saying to the gunner, "Gunner, what do you have eyes on? Is unknown friendly or hostile?"

The gunner responded with panic saying, "unsure, sir. It was moving a ways in the jungle, but I know I saw movement."

"Talk to me, gunner. What did it look like" I responded in concern as I began to look cautiously out the HUMVEE windows into the surrounding jungle.

The soldier responded saying, "Hard to tell, sir. It had a human shape to it, but it was hunched over and moving fast."

I immediately got on the mic and spoke though it saying "All unit callsigns, this is Alenko of Security Unit Alpha. Are any personal moving along road N34 going north and approaching the labs?"

I waited for a second and then voices began to respond in order saying:

"Alenko, this is Epsilon squad leader. My unit is currently moving along road I17 and heading east to the labs."

"Charlie here, Alenko. Unit is moving west along road R23 heading towards the vehicle depot to prep for trip to labs."

"Delta reporting in. Unit is heading west along road R11 towards the labs."

No other callsigns reported in either due to not being deployed for the mission or they we back at base.

I immediately spoke through the mic shouting as I began to climb out of the HUMVEE, "All Alpha callsigns, unknown in the jungle is now presumed possible hostile. All units, check gear and get prepared to protect the convoy."

The other soldiers in my unit got out of their vehicles and took cover either behind them or by using the jungle as cover. I got behind a boulder by the side of the road and crouched down. I then spoke through the mic saying "Gunners, stay on your turrets. Keep your eyes open and scan the area."

I held my assault rifle in hand, my G36K assault rifle, a German made special forces assault rifle firing 5.56 mm rounds. I stayed as quiet as I could to see if I could hear any unusual noise from the jungle. It was silent...deadly silent.

"Alenko, I think that whatever that gunner saw in the jungle...well, it's not here anym..." spoke up Yuri through his headset.

However, he was suddenly interrupted by one of the most hideous and disgusting noises I've ever heard in my life. A loud roar of an otherworldly nature sounded out from deep in the jungle...a roar that made me cringe upon hearing it and it made me sick. The roar sounded like a wild animal was drowning while roaring at the same time. The roar died down to a deep growling, backed with a gurgling sound as if someone were gargling a thick liquid. It made me sick to my stomach just hearing something so grotesque.

At the same time, I felt myself almost paralyzed with fear. Nothing I know of could have even made that sound...at least nothing on this island anyways.

I heard a soldier, Private First Class Claus Schmidt, speak in a thick German accent, "Holy Shit! Did anyone else just hear that?"

Claus Schmidt is a former member of the German counter-terrorism task group GSG 9. Claus served on GSG 9 for about 8 years as a sniper. Due to him being one of the new additions to my unit, I knew very little about him. One of the few things about him that I did know was that he was one of the best snipers in GSG 9. He once took down an armed terrorist threatening a hostages life with the German made PSG-1 sniper rifle...a shot that he made from almost a mile away.

I spoke back to Claus in my mic saying, "Affirmative."

Soon after, I began to hear heavy footsteps sound from in the jungle, coupled with twigs snapping and leaves crunching as someone...or something was walking. However, I soon heard other sounds of footsteps at awkward and unusual paces sounding from the jungle too.

However, they sounded like they were moving way from us. Soon after, all I could hear was dead silence...again.

I then spoke into my mic saying, "Alpha units, get back into the convoy, before whatever made those sounds comes back."

My unit rushed into their vehicles and we drove off out of the area as fast as we could. Soon, we continued along the road towards the labs.

Suddenly, I heard Yuri speak up saying "Okay, what...the...HELL could have made those sounds?"

I responded to Yuri saying with uncertainty, "I have no clue."

I looked down to check my G36K assault rifle, when suddenly; I heard Yuri cry out "OH, FUCK!"

I quickly shot my head up to see a figure standing in the road...right in front of the HUMVEE. I saw Yuri slam on the brakes, but it was too late. The HUMVEE crashed into the figure, sending the figure flying up over the hood and clear over the top of the HUMVEE. The vehicle then came to a stop. I immediately climbed out of the HUMVEE shouting at Rosalina saying, "Rosalina, grab your medic kit and follow me! I don't know who we hit!"

"Yes, sir" she replied at me.

As I got out and rounded the back of the HUMVEE, towards where the figure landed, I felt myself stare mouth agape, frozen with both fear and curiosity.

In front of me, was some kind of...something. I didn't even know what to call it. The figure was horribly mutilated, even beyond what getting hit by a HUMVEE at 40 miles per hour could do to you. The body had patches of exposed flesh and muscle all over it. I gazed, sickened, as I saw intestines hanging out of the abdominal cavity...as well as two small forearms jetting out from the abdominal cavity. The rib cage was split open, reveling more internal organs. The right leg had nothing but muscle on covering it, as well as three oddly shaped toes that were almost fused together. The other leg was like the other from the hip down to the knee cap, but had a second calf coming off of the knee cap, giving the being three legs. I looked at the arms to see barely any skin covering them...and I gazed in horror as I saw 1foot and a half length blades in place of the hands. The blades covered with fresh blood, only adding more to the hideous stench. The head barely had any hair on it and had parts of the actual skull showing through the patchy skin. One eye was solid black. No Iris. No white part. Just solid black. The other eye had a mass of tentacles coming out of the eye socket.

I heard footsteps rush around and then slowly down rapidly as I looked to see the others staring in horror at this...monster that was laying at our feet.

I then heard a soldier speak in horror as he said slowly with a shocked tone, "What...the...FUCK...is...that?"

"I have no clue" spoke Yuri in response with a shocked and sickened tone of voice.

"My god! There's no way hitting that...thing with a HUMVEE can do something like...That"spoke Claus.

"No kidding" said Yuri in response.

I then looked at the others and asked, "What should we do with the body? I mean, I've never seen anything like this before."

A soldier spoke up and said "maybe we should take it to the labs. If anyone's still there, maybe they can tell us just whatever this thing is."

"I don't know, but I'm calling HQ about this" I said in response. "Meanwhile, I want everyone else to secure the area. Let's make damn sure that there aren't more of these...things hiding here."

The others began to fan out and take points surrounding the roads. I then quickly spoke up to a soldier, Corporal Lillian Lopez, saying, "except you Lili. I need you to watch the body. I'm not trusting something that I know absolutely nothing about."

"Me? Why do I have to watch the rotting meat bag? Just get someone else to do it" she back talked to me in response.

I gave her a sten look and said, "Watch what you say Lillian. I'm still your commanding officer and you will follow your orders. Now, go stand watch."

She opened her mouth to speak and I just raised my voice sternly saying, "soldier, that's an order!"

She groaned in annoyance and spoke saying, "Yes, sir."

Corporal Lillian is Rosalina's cousin. In addition to her having a good military background much like her cousin, she and Rosalina seemed to be almost polar opposites. While Rosalina cares about the lives of the soldiers that she watches out for as a medic, Lillian is the type of soldier that really couldn't give less of a concern with anyone in my unit even if she tried. The only person she even cared about is her cousin Rosalina. I don't exactly like her personality. Sometimes, she just makes me want to throw her in the island's detainment cells for her behavior. However, she's proven that she can hold her own in a firefight, which is why I've kept her in my unit.

I turned my back and went over to the HUMVEE to make a call over a secure radio channel using the radio. I picked up the mic of the radio and began to speak.

"HQ, this Alpha actual. Come in, over" I spoke.

"This is HQ, Alpha actual. What's your situation, over" responded the comms expert on the other end?

"My unit and I were on our way to the labs to respond to an emergency signal we recieved, but we were stopped by something." I then paused and said, "well actually, it stopped us."

"Please clarify, Alpha actual. What happened" responded the other end?

"We ran into an unidentified...creature of some sort. I can't really explain what it is. This is something you would have to see to believe" I said.

The Comms expert began to respond, however her voice was slowly being taken over by static. Soon her voice cut out entirely. I then heard a very twisted and disturbed voice ring out and speaking to me. However, it wasn't coming from the radio. It was like...I could hear it speak from inside my head.

"_No one can help you now. No one can help as I tear the life from your bodies. No one can help as I tear you limb from limb. No one can help as you bleed and die...by the hands of those that shall be born from the bodies of every last PITIFUL piece of life on this planet" spoke the voice in a tone that made my body go ridged with fear. _

"_But don't worry. You can take pride in being one of the first few of your pathetic species to be part of the birth of the children that shall replace all life on this world."_

"_Now...say your prayers" spoke the voice. _

Then suddenly, the voice stopped. I then heard a heavy breathing sound, followed by disgusting squishing sounds come from around the HUMVEE. I looked around the HUMVEE to see corporal Lillian standing there facing towards me. I then gazed in horror as I saw the monster get up from the ground and begin to slowly move right behind Lillian, the monster showing an aggressive posture, hanging it's blades in front of it, the being crouched down a bit.

The being got behind Lillian and it raised it's blades into the air behind her...and she was unaware of it being behind her.

I grabbed my rifle in hand and aimed it at the monster and screamed "Lillian, behind you!"

She gave me a confused look for half a second and she quickly spun around and saw the monster just as it was bringing it's blades down to attack.

She screamed and tried to jump aside. However, a blade came down too close to her arm and it sliced her hand off.

I heard flesh cutting as she screamed out in bloody, agonizing pain as her wound began to bleed profusely. She collapsed to the ground.

The others heard the commotion and came back to gaze in horror as Lillian was down on the ground screaming in pain as this thing was about to gut her with it's blades.

I saw Yuri run up from behind it with a gas can and swing it at the being as hard as he could. The impact knocked the creature off its' feet. He then yelled out "give me a hand, damn it!"

We aimed our weapons at the monster on the ground and we began to fire our weapons at it, gunfire ringing out in the surrounding area. The creature, getting riddled by bullets of various calibers, was only roaring in aggression. A soldier then came up close to creature wielding a NS2000, a South African made double barreled pump action shotgun. He aimed it at the creatures' head and pulled the trigger. The shotgun fired off two 12 gauge slugs shells from both barrels, the solid shells went into the things head and popped the head like a ripe melon. However, I gazed in terror as I saw the being begin to try to stand up...without its' head!

The soldier fired off two more slugs into the body of the creature and it just fell back down to the ground...unmoving.

I gazed in terror at what just happened. I then suddenly screamed out, "what kind of happy horse shit was that?"

How could that thing possibly survive a hail of hundreds of bullets, getting its' head blow off with a shotgun and then manage to try to get back up to fucking fight us?

I then noticed Rosalina come to realize just what had happened to her cousin, Lillian, and why she was still on the ground withering in pain. She came rushing to Lillian's help saying in a panicked, and yet reassuring voice, "Oh god! Lili! Don't worry, I got you! Your going to be just fine!" Rosalina took out her medic kit and opened it up, trying to find a way to stop Lillian's perfuse bleeding.

Suddenly, a chorus of loud, disturbing and aggressive roars and screams of various tones began to sound off from in the jungle. I felt myself stop all movement as I thought to myself, "oh shit, not more of them!"

I then began to give my unit orders saying, "Damn it, it looks like enemy reinforcements are coming. Okay, we need to get this area locked down. There's no telling how soon those creatures are going to get here." I then looked at Rosalina and ordered, saying "Rosie, get Lillian into one of the transport trucks and tend to her there."

"Sir, yes sir" she responded and then she began to help Lillian up on her feet. Lillian struggled to get up, probably from the pain and blood loss. Rosalina then began to move her to the back of one of the transport trucks.

I then looked at two of the soldiers in my unit and spoke, saying "You two, I need you up on those M134's now. We'll need all the suppressive fire we can get."

The two troopers began to move to the HUMVEE's and they each clambered up onto the roof of the HUMVEE's to get into the gunners position.

I then looked at two other soldiers in my unit and ordered them saying, "You two, grab some claymore mines and set them as many of them up as you can on the sides of the roads and in the jungle. We'll give those walking piles of meat one hell of a welcoming...alpha style."

The two soldiers nodded at me and said "Hell yeah, sir!"

They each went to the troop transport trucks to grab some claymore mines from trucks.

I then spoke to the others saying, "The rest of you, check your weapons and gear! Make sure those guns have full clips in them."

I then heard more screams and roars echoing from in the jungle, this time much...much closer.

I then spoke to the rest of my unit again saying, "come on, move it! There going to be here any minute now!"

With our position dug in as best as we could finally, we took cover behind trees and boulders on the side of the road; as well as behind our armored vehicles.

We readied our guns and waited for all hell to break loose.

I began to hear shuffling, rustling and other sounds of movement begin to sound out from in the jungle, near the side of the road. However, it was hard to see anything with the thick jungle foliage being in our way.

Suddenly...the noises stopped.

I felt very confused, scared and nervous all at once. Slowly, I began to peak over the hood of the HUMVEE that I had gotten behind for cover. I didn't see anything. Then a sickly wheezing sound, soon followed by a disturbing, messed up spitting sound. I quickly saw a oozy mass of some tannish, foul liquid begin to fly towards my direction from in the jungle. "Oh, man" I shouted as I got back down in cover just as the mass flew right over where my head would have been! The mass went past me and struck a tree's truck, splattering all over it in a sickening sound. I gazed in terror as I saw the foul substance begin to melt and eat away at the bark on the tree. I then shouted "anybody see where it came from?"

I then saw a soldier peak over cover and look into the jungle. "Negative, sir. I go..." He began to say. However, another oozy mass of the same type shoot out from in the jungle towards the trooper. I gazed in fear as I saw the mass hit him in the upper chest, literally blowing his head, right arm and part of his chest clear off of his body in a sickening display of blood and gore. The remains of his body fell down to the ground in a sickening splat, blood seeping from it. I witnessed in horror as I saw the ooze begin to melt away at the remaining portions of his chest where they splashed on.

I then heard someone shout in panic saying, "shit, we got a man down!"

Suddenly, I heard screams and roars of rage as I looked over the hood to see a whole horde of those monsters begin to charge at us from in the jungle. There were too many to count or even to describe.

Then a hailstorms of those oozy masses of liquid began to fly out from in the jungle, striking cover around us.

I raised my rifle and shouted "all units, you are weapons free! I repeat, light them up!"

We began to fire every bullet we could at the mass of creatures that were charging us from in the jungle. I saw our rounds slam into the horde, tearing flesh from their bodies, but few were falling to the assault.

As the horde got closer, I began to hear explosions as the claymore anti-personal mines in the jungle began to go off as the beings ran close to them. I gazed in shock as I saw a hail of blood and limbs fly every which direction from the explosions. The explosives began to take down more of those meat sacks. However, they weren't dropping fast enough. Plus, I also saw some of those creatures begin to crawl towards us, their legs completely blown clean off. They weren't even phased by the injury that would cripple or even kill a normal person.

The horde was getting ever closer and were now less than 30 yards from us.

I shouted through my mic over the gun fire saying "gunners, lay down heavy suppressive fire on their forces! Cut them down!"

I then heard the sound of motor begin to power up as the miniguns' electric motor began to spin the eight barrels around in a circle. I then heard a massive assault of heavy gunfire that sounded like one continuous noise begin to sound off next to our positions.

The miniguns, firing 7.62 mm rounds at a rate of 3,000 rounds a minute, began to carve through their numbers, the bullets cutting through them like hot knives through butter. Wave after wave fell dead, but they showed not even an ounce of fear as they kept running, full speed for us.

Next, I felt my heart sink as they finally closed in on our positions; a large part of the massive horde getting past our defenses and massive suppressive fire.

I then heard screams of panic and sounds of struggle as my unit were desperately trying to put these things down...in close quarters.

One soldier moved out from cover to try to kill one of these beasts with his shotgun. The creature he was up against was the single most repulsive, hideous and disturbing being you could image. The creature looked like it had literally got caught in a meat grinder. I saw patches of skin dangling off from the creature from it's upper chest, arms and legs. I saw that it was completely missing it's lower jaw and all the skin from there down to it's crotch, revealing mangled organs. The head had no hair and had exposed patches of flesh on it. There were no eyes at all. In there place were two burnt out eye sockets, the black empty voids staring back at him. The creature had three legs. THREE LEGS! Two of them were fused together from the calf down, and the third was nothing but intestines and entrails that wrapped around each other to

form some sort of leg like limb. The arms had hooks and barbs on it and the hands were nothing but three very long and sharp claws, covered in dry blood.

The soldier raised his shotgun to fire, but the being suddenly spewed out a large quantity of some vile tannish liquid at him. The liquid splashed over the guy's face and he screamed out bloody murder, "AH GODDAMN IT! MY FACE! IT BURNS!"

He reeled back in pain and was grabbing his face. He thrashed about in pain and I felt myself almost puke as I saw that skin on his face was melting off, being burned off by the liquid. I then realized what happened. That thing threw up acid on him!

The being slashed him with it's claws tearing his chest apart and he fell to the ground. The being then literally threw up whole gallon loads of acid on the guy. Screaming in pain, I saw that he was being dissolved alive. Finally, the soldier melted into a pile of goo. There was almost nothing left but an unrecognizable mass of goo.

I quickly raised my rifle and fired full auto into the being screaming, "Die motherfuck! Die you dirty motherfucker!"

My bullets tore into the monster, tearing flesh out of it. It roared in anger as it then tried to throw up on me. I sidestepped it as I saw the vomit splash all over a large rock behind me. I gazed in shock as I saw the rock actually being dissolved by the highly strong acid. I then noticed the now dead soldiers shotgun laying on the ground, having been knocked out of his hands when the creature slashed him. I sprinted for the shotgun as I heard the being give chase after me. I reached the shotgun and dove for it. I grabbed it in my hands and rolled to stop my abrupt landing. Standing back up and facing the creature, I fired the shotgun. The gun recoiled in my hands as two solid slugs were shot out of both barrels. The shells tore into the chest of the creature, tearing out huge holes in it. It reeled back from the impact, but showed no signs of pain. I pumped the shotgun and fired again. This time, my rounds tore into what appeared to be the creatures lungs. I gazed in horror as I saw vomit actually spilling out from the lungs as I shot them. This seemed to really do damage to the monster. I then pumped again and fired into its' head. The rounds blew it's head apart. Blood and vomit spewed out of the neck wound. The being then staggered and fell to the ground...unmoving.

Around me, I could see that my unit was doing the very best they could to defend themselves against these demons. However, the fight was turning for the worst.

One soldier emptied the entirety of his submachine gun magazine into one of these monsters, reducing it to a dead pile of meat. He looked to his right to see a creature charging him. This thing was truly weird. The creature had no legs at all. Rather it had a tail coming out of where the legs should have been, with the tail tipped by a large 5 inch blade. The thing was running soley using its' arms, which were mutilated, showing large patches of muscles. The hands still had five fingers, but each was tipped by a one inch claw. The creatures' spine was horribly bent, curving upwards, forming spines that stuck out from the skin, and yet they didn't break through it. The head was really unusual. I witnessed the creature open it's jaws like a Venus flytrap opening itself, read to kill its' prey. I gazed amazed as I saw retractable fangs on the top and bottom of the mouth.

The soldier dropped his submachine gun and pulled reached for his pistol. He drew it and began to fire as quickly as he could, emptying the rounds into the creature. The being was unfazed as it roared in anger. It then swung its' tail at the soldier, hitting his arm, the blade slicing through. The man screamed in pain as his arm was severed from his body. I then gazed in terror as I witnessed three creatures, much like the one we had run over with the HUMVEE, make a mad dash for him. I could only watch in shock as one of the creatures slashed at the guy's mouth, tearing his jaw off of his face. The man fell back on the ground and the all three of the monsters came up and began to carve him apart with their scythes. Blood spraying everywhere as they tore the soldier apart, I knew he was already dead.

I reached for my vest and pulled out a M67 fragmentation grenade, a grenade that kills with an explosion and high velocity shrapnel (in this case, metal fragments). I wrapped my finger around the pin and pulled the pin out of the grenade, starting the fuse that was inside the grenade to countdown. I then threw it at the monsters, the grenade hitting one in the back and dropping to the ground, landing by its' foot. The being froze for a second and darted its' head to look at the grenade. It then looked up at me, staring me in the eyes. The being roared, soon followed by the grenade exploding, tearing the creatures apart. When the dust and debris cleared, I saw body parts from the creatures strewn everywhere in the area.

I then heard a short almost howling like sound coming from behind me. I spun around to see a monster approach one of the HUMVEE's. This creature was had only one leg, but it used an extra long arm to stabilize it's walking. The creature had pale greyish skin and an almost empty chest cavity. The other arm had a very large, and unusual, glowing orange sack attached to it. The sack was actually giving off light! As it moved, walking almost like a creature that would have three legs, I saw myself in disbelief as I witnessed that its' head was fluttering open and closed on occasion. The head, straight down the middle, was actually pulling open and then closing, acting almost like the mouth.

The soldier on top of the HUMVEE was unaware of the approaching monster due to the assaulting noises of automatic gunfire and various screams, roars and growls from these monsters; as well as roars of pain as my unit was unfortunately losing to these monsters. The creature went over to the HUMVEE and stopped for a second and let out a roar. I then gazed in horror as I saw it whip its' sack into the air and slam it down on the HUMVEE. The sack actually went off in a chemical explosion, meaning no fire or combustion. However, the force was strong enough to flip the HUMVEE up into the air, throwing the gunner out of the gunners position. He landed on the ground, stunned. I gazed in horror as I saw the HUMVEE drop right down on him, crushing him alive. The vehicle was totaled, and I soon began to see fire break out on the engine. The vehicle then went off in an explosion, throwing me, Yuri and Claus off our feet. The explosion unfortunately killed two of my men and mortally mounded another.

I felt panicked as I saw my men being taken down like animals by these creatures. With only 9 men left out of 25, I gave the order for a tactical retreat.

I yelled into my mic saying "attention all alpha units, fall back! I repeat, fall back from the area!"

My unit began a hasty retreat into the jungle, abandoning the convoy and the mission. Right now, I wanted to save as many of my soldiers as I could. I took off into the jungle, quickly looking behind me to see Yuri and Claus right behind me, soon followed by Rosalina and Lillian. Lillian was running as best as she could, despite the amount of blood she lost. Rosalina was right next to Lillian, supporting her injured cousin. 4 other soldier that managed to survive were right behind them.

I ran as fast as I could, tree branches and leaves whipping past my face. I felt my heart sink as I heard the sounds of disturbed and aggressive roars and growls from behind us. The monsters were giving chase to us.

I knew we couldn't run forever. The only thing I could do would be to see if any other security unit could rescue us. I yelled into my mic shouting, "Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is Alpha unit fleeing from a large enemy force through the jungles east of road N34, requesting immediate rescue. Any units in the area please respond, Mayday!"

The radio was silent.

As I ran, I felt myself praying for any kind of answer. Just when I had lost hope, I heard a voice speak up through the mic. The connection was really bad and full of static.

"Alpha, this is Charlie unit. We are responding to your Mayday and are moving to road N55 off to your west. Make your way there and my unit will be waiting for you." The voice then stopped for a second and then it spoke up again saying, "Can you make it to us? Do you need backup?"

I then responded saying, "No, just have your men on standby. When we get there, there's going to be a whole new meaning of shit following us from behind."

As I kept running, I suddenly felt myself lose my footing. I came tumbling down to the ground. My body was screaming in pain from the impact. I then heard roars and shouts get ever more closer. Looking around, I saw that I was right next to a hole of some sort in the ground. The hole seemed to be a large burrow of some sort for some type of animal. Maybe from a boar, since I have seen wild boar on the island once or twice. I couldn't stand up and continue running by the time those creatures caught up to me. I quickly crawled into the burrow as far as I could go. I was instantly in the dark, with the only light from in front of me from the burrow entrance. I saw that my unit was still running, unaware that I had fallen. I soon heard a massive amount of approaching footsteps and loud growls and roars. I then soon saw all sorts of monsters running past the burrow, around 12 of them. Soon, all of the monsters were past me, unaware that they missed where I was. Once I saw that they were well away from me, I crawled out of the burrow. I then began to speak into my mic saying, "Charlie, this is Alpha actual. I've been separated from my retreating unit. I'll find another way to reach you. Are you still waiting for my unit?"

I waited for an answer, but all I heard was static. However, it wasn't normal static. I could hear a very faint and indistinct noise in the background. It was impossible to make out.

I then spoke out again saying, "This is Alpha actual, anybody read me?"

Still nothing but this unusual static.

Unsure of what to do, I began to make my way further into the jungle in hopes of reaching Charlie.

_**(((((((((((((((((((((((((!Warning:!)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))**_

_**The part of the chapter mentioned before has now ended. The rest of the chapter is now outside the warning and does not contain detailed, graphic content.**_

_**((((((((((((((((((((((((!Warning:!)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))**_

**(End flashback; back to Brittany's perspective)**

I just sat there, completely stunned by Alenko's story of survival, bloodshed and desperation. I couldn't believe that he had managed to survive that many creatures, getting ambushed by them in a massive horde and surviving an escape attempt.

I looked around at the others to see that they had similar looks of amazement and shock. I saw Alenko starring back at us. He then spoke up saying, "after that, I tried to find the unit that was supposed to rescue my unit and me. However, I couldn't find them or my security unit. I eventually went off track and wound up trekking through the jungles for hours. That is until I ran into that creature that attacked all seven of us. The rest...well, now you know."

I then heard Alvin speak up with shock saying, "wait a minute. Alenko, you've heard that vile disembodied voice too? Did you see it?"

Instantly, I felt my curiosity peak. "What was Alvin talking about? All we ever heard was a voice. We never saw..." I thought to myself.

And then it hit me. That's what Alvin was hiding after the plane crash. He saw something on or near the plane that he connected to the voice.

I then felt myself get angry at Alvin. Down right furious. "Damn it, if he had told us that something was wrong earlier, we could have avoided getting stranded on this nightmare island! If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be in this fucking hellhole."

I then heard Alenko speak up with shock saying, "wait, you guys heard it too? When?"

Eleanor spoke up and said "on board of a jet. We were flying past the island when...our jet went down. We were the only survivors."

Alenko chuckled at himself and said "well, at least now I know I'm not insane."

He then spoke up and said, "No, I never saw anything when the voice was speaking to me. I only heard it."

Simon then spoke up in curiosity and asked "Hey, do you know if you headset is working? Or is it still busted?"

Alenko then said, "I don't know. Hold on."

He then activated the mic on his headset and spoke in it saying, "To any security units, this is Alpha actual. Can anybody hear me?"

Alenko then sat there, waiting for a response. After a while he groaned in frustration and said, "damn it, comms are still out. All I'm getting is static."

I then spoke up and said, "so what do you think we should do, Alenko? Where do you think we can be safe?"

Alenko then looked down at the ground, apparently in deep thought. Suddenly, his head shot up and he said with relief, "Yes. On the other side of the island, there's an armory with an attached barracks. That place is surrounded by 20 foot high walls and it has turrets guarding the walls. If we go there, we can get better weapons and maybe even some vehicles. Plus, there's a chance that my squad may be there."

Simon then spoke up with a logical voice, saying "Well, it's the only chance we have."

I then spoke up and said, "then we'll head there in the morning. That way, we'll be rested and have daylight on our side."

"Agreed" said Alenko.

We then decided to try to get some sleep before sunrise. Alenko agreed to stand watch for a few hours since he had the best weapon and was the only one who knew how to use it well.

We crawled back into our sleeping bags, eager to get some sleep. After I got in, I soon felt some movement next to me, followed by someone else get in the sleeping bag with me.

I then felt an arm wrap around my waist. I then heard Alvin speak up in a slightly tired voice saying, "goodnight, Britt." I then felt him kiss the top of my head. I jerked my heard away from him and said in a neutral voice, "Yeah, whatever."

I was then met with silence as I was still angry at Alvin for basically getting us into this whole fucking mess to be begin with.

I then heard Alvin speak up with confusion in his voice saying, "Something bothering you, Britt?"

I then spoke up saying, "what do you care? You didn't care enough about us to avoid getting us into this mess in the first place, so why the hell should you care now?"

Alvin then spoke up with a confused and defensive tone saying, "what are you talking about?"

I then responded saying, "back on the jet. You _knew_ that there was something wrong. You knew that something bad could have happened to us, to all of us. And what did you do? Absolutely fucking nothing."

Alvin then spoke up and said, "I didn't say anything because I knew you wouldn't believe me. I mean what was I supposed to say, "hey Britt, come take a look out the window. I just saw a black shadow with glowing static for eyes and a mouth speaking at me, preaching doomsday to me." I mean really, what would you think if I said that?"

Instantly, I felt myself begin to switch from anger to a feeling of shame. "He's right. I would have never believed him, and I knew he would have never believed me if it was the other way around. Damn it, why did I get angry at him? He didn't deserve that."

I then heard Alvin then speak up angrily saying, "you know what? Fine. If your not going to listen Britt, then I don't care."

I then spoke up with a soft tone saying, "Alvin?"

He then spat, "What is it now?"

I felt myself cringe at the very tone he was using. The fact that I made him angry without thinking about what I was going to say before I said it, coupled with his voice, brought me a lot of guilt and pain.

"I...I'm sorry, Alvin" I spoke with an apologetic tone, hoping to mend my friendship with Alvin...my best friend...my boyfriend.

"Huh" he said confused?

I felt myself on the verge of tears as I said, "I'm sorry Alvin. Your right, I wouldn't have believed you. I mean it's just such a wild concept and I should have thought it through, and...I didn't mean it." By now I was crying over the guilt and pain that I caused him, coupled with the stress of what had happened within the last almost 12 hours. "I'm just...I'm sorry" I spoke with the most sincere voice I could use.

I was preparing for more yelling, but instead, I heard Alvin speak up in a soft, tender voice saying, "Hey, Britt. Roll over, look at me.'

I slowly and hesitantly rolled over to look at Alvin. I saw him stare at me saying, "Hey, I'm sorry for yelling at you. I shouldn't have done that." I then felt him gently wipe the tears from my eyes, feeling his touch on my skin. He then spoke up with a tender whisper saying, "I'm the one who should be sorry. Can you forgive me and my big mouth?"

I then felt myself pause for a moment before saying, "yeah, I forgive you."

I then saw him smile at me and he said "thanks."

I then spoke up saying softly, "beside, I can't stay mad at you."

He spoke up moving his head a little closer to mine.

I felt my heart rate speed up a little as I then said "I can't stay mad at you, either."

I moved my head a little closer to his, our faces almost right next each other.

I then smirked as I spoke up saying "and why is that?"

Alvin then spoke with a smirk on his face saying, "because I love you too much."

I then spoke softly saying, "I love you too. Even if we did just piss each other off."

He smirked and then we closed the distance between us. Our lips locked as we began to kiss each other, thankful that we were still alive and that we still loved each other.

We kept kissing each other, our hands caressing each others bodies. I don't know how long we kept that up for. Finally, we broke the kiss. I could feel my heart racing a mile a minute. I opened my eyes and saw Alvin starring at me, with nothing but the love he had for me in his eyes at that moment.

We embraced each other. I began to feel an overwhelming sense of exhaustion due to how tired I was. I could tell Alvin was tired too. We embraced each other close and I closed my eyes, enjoying the feeling of his body touching my own. I could feel his warm breath as he was breathing softly and regularly.

I then heard Alvin speak up in a soft tone saying, "goodnight, my love."

I felt my heart just about explode as I heard him say this. I then responded by saying "goodnight, Alvie."

I relaxed as I finally felt the sense of slumber begin to overtake me.

However, little did I know that tomorrow, things would only get worse...

**(A/N: Well, that's the end of this three part chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it. I tried to show you all how brutal a necromorph is and how difficult it is to kill a necromorph. This story will now go at a little bit of a faster pace for the next few chapters.**

**Speaking of which, there are several news breeds of necromorphs that I introduced in this chapter. They are:**

**Slashers - slashers are the most common type of necromorph and are also the most varied in terms of appearance. Slashers typically have a human outline to them, but just barely. They are relatively simple minded, although the evolved versions (which are not seen in this chapter) have a higher degree of intelligence. Slashers typically use two scythes, both attached to the arms of the necromorph. The scythes either take place of the hands on the arms themselves or they come out of the palms of the hands. They may also have a set of small forearms coming out of the abdomen that are used to hold prey in place while they carve it apart with their scythes. Slashers are notorious for playing dead if they get severely hurt or if they get decapitated. They will pretend to die, collapsing to the floor and waiting for their attacker to either come closer to see if it's dead or wait for the attacker to turn around. At that point, they spring back up and continue to attack. An example of this breed is the necromorph that Yuri ran over with the HUMVEE in this chapter. **

**Spitters - Although not actually seen in the chapter physically, they did appear in here in terms of their attacks. Spitters are a breed of necromorph made exclusively from the corpses of human females. They have two methods of attack, but only one was shown in the chapter. Spitters either use blades that are attached to the ends of their two "necromorph" arms to carve their prey up in close quarters, or they can turn themselves into a long range necromorph "sniper" unit and shoot out balls of toxic spit at their targets from range. Toxic spit is a mixture of highly corrosive acid and a natural toxin that the spitter produces. Spitters will always prefer to engage from long range, but they will not hesitate to attack in close quarters. Since I did not show the appearance of the spitter in this chapter, I will describe it now. The spitter is one of the tallest breeds of necromorph, but not as tall as the divider. Spitters have four arms, but only two of them are really used. The original arms from the human female corpse are not mutated, but they are locked in one position as they hold open the skin and muscle over the spitter's chest cavity, revealing all of her organs in her chest. The other two arms are "necromorph" arms created by moving muscle from other parts of the body during reanimation and creating two arms of bone covered by muscle that jet out from where the shoulder blades should be. The arms are tipped at the end by two blades which are made from the spitters shoulder blades. The legs are not mutated to any real degree, but they do reveal a lot of muscle in the spitters legs, and they continue to reveal muscle going up all the way to the spitters lower back. The head is largely untouched during reanimation, but the mouth is replaced by a dense tube of muscle that sticks out from the mouth area a little and goes all the way to the spitters chest, giving a way for the spitter to shoot toxic spit.**

**Leaper - leapers are one of the most heavily mutated breeds of necromorph that there is, maybe next to the stalker and the puker. The leaper is made from the upper torso of any human corpse, male or female. The arms of the upper torso are used for movement and as a form of attack since the Leaper has claws at the end of each of it's fingers. The Leaper is capable of walking on walls and ceilings by digging it's one inch claws into the material it is walking on. Leapers can run very quickly and are capable of launching themselves into the air over distances of more than 15 feet. The Leapers scorpion like stinger tail is made from the corpses spinal cord, grown and elongated during reanimation. Leapers, like all necromorphs, are capable of surviving in a vacuum since they do not need air to breathe. An example of this breed is the necromorph that attacks one of Alenko's soldiers, cutting his arm off with it's blade tipped tail. **

**Exploders - exploders are the suicide bombers of the necromorph horde and are one of the only two breeds that kill their prey by killing themselves. Exploders are heavily mutated and are not capable of higher levels of thinking. Exploders kill themselves with a large glowing yellow sac, which is filled with organic compounds that when mixed together, become highly explosive. They do not combust, but the explosion is a chemical explosion. **

**Pukers - this breed here is easily one of the most twisted breeds of necromorph to ever be seen. Pukers are a little more intelligent than most other breeds of necromorph, but not really by much. They primarily kill with either highly corrosive vomit, stored in it's lungs, or by using their sharp claws to tear their prey apart. They are capable of vomiting without their head, instead spewing out vomit through its' neck hole, though a little more inaccurately than with their head attached. Also, when dismembered, they will spew vomit out of any limb that has been dismembered, making fighting them in close quarters very dangerous. One could almost say that they have acid for blood. An example of this is the breed of necromorph that killed one of Alenko's soldiers by vomiting on him until he dissolved into a pile of goo. **

**Also, I would like to thank **_**Foreteller of Three**_** for giving me two OC ideas for my story. Those ideas were Rosalina Lopez and Lillian Lopez. **

**Until next time, my fellow readers and writers...)**

**-MEFN7**


	6. Chapter 3: Knowing the Evil

**Chapter 3: Knowing the Evil**

**(A/N: Hello my fellow readers and writers, I'm back with the next chapter for Stranded in a Nightmare. However, a few things first:**

**1. I'm so sorry for the long delay for this update. A combination of laziness, family issues, and a couple of emergency situations were the cause of this very late update. Being that I'm still dealing with some of those emergencies, I'll try to update as soon as I can, but that might take a while since my family and friends have to go before fanfiction. I'm sorry folks, but I have a life other than this. I mean this with no disrespect.**

**2. I have some bad news for any fans of the Dead Space series that are on this achieve. Visceral Games (the game studios that makes Dead Space) has announced that Dead Space 3 is in fact coming out, but it will not have online competitive multiplayer**. **Instead it will have a two player co-op campaign were two people can player the campaign together and try to survive yet another necromorph outbreak, this time on a frozen ice planet. Some people were pleased by the announcement, and yet; others like me weren't. I loved the Dead Space 2 multiplayer and I thought Visceral games could have made it better instead of scraping it. **

_**(((!IMPORTANT!)))**_**3. This chapter will be a little different than the previous ones in that I will now introduce the true means of how an outbreak begins and how the necromorphs "reproduce" and gain numbers...the infection process. As stated before necromorphs are created when a dead corpse (be it human, animal or anything really) gets reanimated by an infector, a pure alien lifeform created directly from the marker. I will show you all how the infectors work, how reanimation occurs and the various means of necromorph reproduction. Without giving much away until the end of the chapter, necromorphs have no gender beyond that of the corpse that the necromorph was made from. Only an infector can reproduce for the necromorph horde by infecting corpses. However, there now exist two more ways in which necromorph "reproduction" occurs. A corpse can be reanimated by spores produced by the Corruption. I haven't shown it yet, but the corruption is a living slime-like necromorph that covers walls, floors and ceilings. The corruption is made from dead and decaying organic matter such as: skin flakes, hair, blood, dead bacteria and other substances stuck to a surface. The other and final way was recently introduced by Visceral Games, but I will not show it in the story to any great detail due to how gory it is. The final way id that a living person has to eat the flesh of a necromorph and it then transforms them from the inside out, turning them into a semi-necromorph being called a Feeder. **_**(((!IMPORTANT!)))**_

**Now, after that long Authors note, on with the story.)**

(From Alvin's perspective; the following morning)

"Guys, come on wake up" I heard a familiar male voice speak up.

My semi-restful nights slumber had been interrupted by someone speaking to me and Brittany. I still felt tired and by instinct, I ignored the voice. Then I felt someone shake my left shoulder lightly, trying to get my attention again. Knowing that it might be something urgent I rolled over and opened my eyes, instantly I was squinting from almost being blinded by the bright morning sun.

Once I could finally make out my surroundings in better detail from my eyes adjusting, I saw my baby brother Theodore looking back down at me. I rubbed my eyes and said to him, "what's going on Theo?"

He then responded by saying, "the rest of us are preparing to travel to that armory that Alenko mentioned to us last night. You two need to get ready."

After Theo spoke I looked around our makeshift "campsite" to see that the others had packed up both of the two other sleeping bags. I also noticed that the others packed up as many of their processions as they could carry through the jungle. Being that the armory was on the other side of the island, we had to travel as light as we could, which unfortunately meant that we had to leave some of our belongings behind. I personally had no problem with it. All I wanted was to get somewhere that was safe from these…monsters.

I pivoted myself upwards slightly, looking around until I noticed a familiar person sleeping next to me in my sleeping bag. I gazed at Brittany, who was currently still asleep next to me, her back facing me as she was breathing ever so softly. I reached for Brittany's left shoulder and I lightly shook her as I spoke softly saying "Brittany, wake up. We're about to get moving."

I felt Brittany, my love; begin to stir at my touch. She groggily looked back at me from where she was lying and glanced at me. She then spoke saying "morning, Alvie."

I then responded saying, "morning, my love. We need to get ready, the others are already packed."

We both climbed out of the sleeping bag. Brittany began to pack up her belongings, aside from a set of clothes she would be wearing today. I packed up the sleeping bag and soon began to pack up my processions, aside from a set of my clothes as well. However, while I was packing my clothes, I noticed Brittany grab her clothes and go a little bit into the jungle to be able to change. I didn't like the fact that she was now out of sight, but I then realized that she would probably be able to tell if one of those…monsters began to stalk her.

After I was all packed, I grabbed my clothes and went out into the jungle too to change. As I walked out of sight of the campsite, I began to find an area to change. However, I was soon stopped when I noticed a group of large ferns move near me to my right in the jungle. I noticed them rustle back and forth. I felt myself freeze wondering who…or what was lurking in the ferns. Just when I began to think it was one of those monsters, I noticed the upper half of a person pop up above the ferns. I noticed Brittany, who apparently went behind the ferns to change. I began to approach Brittany cautiously, until I was less than 15 feet from her. I saw that she was currently changing and she was only in her bra and panties. She glanced slightly to the right just for a split second and then went back to what she was doing. Then I noticed her gasp and quickly do a double take, pulling her blouse off of the top of a fern to cover her upper body. She then spoke annoyed saying, "do you mi…?" However she stopped mid-sentence when apparently, she noticed it was me. She then looked at me and then said, "oh, it's only you Alvin."

I stared at Brittany for a second before saying, "I'm sorry Britt, I'll give you some privacy."

She then spoke up saying, "oh come on, Alvin. It's nothing you haven't seen before."

I felt myself slightly blush when I realized what she meant.

Brittany then smirked saying, "actually, you've seen more of me than this."

I then felt my body temperature rise slightly, as well as myself blush even more at this statement.

Feeling that the situation between the two of us was turning more and more awkward as time went on, I kept quiet as I began to change into a new set of clothes, a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt. As I was changing, I couldn't help but to look over at Brittany's direction as she was putting on a new set of clothes. As I looked at my love, I began to feel fear and guilt overtake my very soul. I began to wonder if I could ever live life if something, god forbid, happened to her. She is everything to me and if I lost her to these creatures…I would have nothing left. I'm the one who got us in this mess, and I'll give my life to make damn sure that we all live to see tomorrow.

Brittany was putting on a new pair of shorts when she glanced my way and apparently noticed me staring at her, almost in a trance like state. She stopped and gave me a confused expression saying, "Alvin, is something wrong?" She spoke with caution and curiosity in her voice.

Hearing her say my name made me snap back to reality. Looking at her, I spoke in a reassuring tone saying, "oh, um… yeah everything's fine. I just zoned out."

She nodded to me, but I could tell that she knew that I was lying to her about something, but to what she couldn't be sure.

After we changed, we both headed back to the camp, only to see that the others were waiting for us. Jeanette looked at us and spoke saying, "Finally, there you two are. Ready to get going?"

"Yeah, we're ready. Let's just hope that we don't run into any of them on our way there" I said back to her.

"Agreed" spoke Simon as he grabbed the Desert Eagle out of his pants and held it in his hand, his finger just touching the trigger. He wanted to be ready, just in case.

"Alright, let's move out people. Simon, I want you in front with me" Alenko yelled out to us.

"If we run into trouble, we have to protect everyone."

Simon nodded in response. He pulled back the hammer on the Desert Eagle, ready to kill.

We set off through the jungle. We moved cautiously through the jungle floor, climbing over above ground tree roots and fallen trees, as well as trekking through the occasional river.

We had just crossed another river and we were maybe about an hour into our hike, when Theodore suddenly pointed to just above the jungle canopy saying, "wait, hold up. What's that off in the distance?"

I looked towards the area where Theo was pointing and I saw what he was looking at. Off in the distance, maybe about a mile out, was a column of smoke rising into the near cloudless sky.

"That looks like a huge fire, or something. I don't know" spoke up Eleanor with uncertainty in her voice.

I then looked ahead at Alenko, who was also staring at the smoke plumb, and I spoke saying, "Alenko, is there any structure on the island that would give off exhaust or something like that?"

Alenko looked back with his assault rifle in hand and spoke saying, "The only building that could cause that much exhaust might be the nuclear reactor. Still, that's built into the labs up in the mountains. Plus, the exhaust vents are set up on the other side of the island."

Immediately, I heard Simon speak up in a panic-stricken tone saying, "Wait a bloody minute, Alenko. Are you telling me that your research company built a nuclear power plant on the island? Do you realize the danger here?"

Alenko then shook his head and spoke up saying, "No, but I have a feeling you're going to tell me."

"if you guys have a nuclear power plant on the island, wouldn't you need to have a crew to maintain it at all times" spoke Simon?

Alenko said in response, "Well, not really. The reactor has automated equipment in the event of an emergency, but it is meant to have technicians as the primary source of repair and upkeep. However, in order to operate automatically, a crew has to switch over the computer systems in there, and that in itself requires a series of access keys.

"Well, that's just it. If no one was able to put the plant to automatic operation, then the reactor could become unstable anytime. It might even go into a full scale meltdown" spoke Simon with panic in his voice!

I instantly felt my heart sink at this. Now, it seems that these creatures aren't our only problem.

I could see it in Alenko's face that he was just as shocked and scared now.

"Well, then we have to get to the armory and get reinforcements. Hopefully, there might even be a survivor from the reactor there who can tell us what to do" spoke up Alenko in response.

"Anyways, it looks like that smoke is coming from road N55. That's the road that Charlie was taking to get to my unit…which means that they might be under attack" spoke Alenko with a tone of realization.

He looked at us and said, "come on, let's move. They might need help."

We then took off in a mad sprint towards N55 in hopes to find some help, or to help them. Soon, we got closer to the edge of the jungle, where N55 was. We couldn't hear any gunfire, explosions or anything. As we got closer, I began to smell the horrible stench of burning flesh and gasoline I could see what appeared to be fire just on the road ahead.

When we got a better view of the road from the edge of the jungle, there was only carnage ahead of us. I gazed at the destroyed, burning husks of several military vehicles. Five in total, two troop transport trucks, what appeared to be an IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle), and two HUMVEE's, all burning. Four of the five vehicles look like they were literally torn in half or they had giant gaping holes in them going in one side and out the other. Metal and glass were everywhere, as well as blast marks and bullet casings as the ground resembled that of a brutal warzone. I saw pools of blood and a few severed limbs, including both human limbs and a few limbs from these creatures laying on the ground, making the scene appear that much more gruesome.

However, what creped me out the most was that there were no bodies in sight…AT ALL. There wasn't even the remains of one of these creatures anywhere to be seen.

"Oh my god" I spoke in shock.

"What the hell happened" spoke Jeanette.

I then heard Alenko speak up saying with a sullen and angry tone saying, "god damn, they must have been ambushed." He looked around and spoke again saying, "they never had a chance."

He then slowly began to step out onto the road, his assault rifle in hand. With plumbs of smoke and wreakage blocking our view of most of the surrounding area, we cautiously began to follow him, unsure if these creatures were still around or not.

As we walked further through the carnage that had occurred here, there still wasn't a single body in sight. However, as I glanced to my left, I saw something move in the jungle just off the side of the road. Still, I wasn't sure if it was my mind playing tricks on me or not. It wasn't making a sound, but that was hard to tell over the sound of the fire's burning and through the veil of smoke. Still, it was rather huge…a little bigger than a HUMVEE and sporting the posture of a gorilla. I dismissed it as nothing other than my imagination playing tricks on me.

I saw Alenko go around the burning IFV, only to then hear him say, "well, I found a body."

We went around to where Alenko was upon hearing this, only to see that on the ground, was a human body. It was badly mutilated and butchered, evulsions and lacerations covering the body. However, it still had all of its limbs. Alenko reached down slowly and pulled something off of the corpse. He raised the shiny item closer to his face, examining it with careful attention.

As I looked at the item, I recognized them as dog tags; ID tags soldier wear that give their squad name, ranking, their name, etc. The tags were covered in semi-dry blood, but appeared to be fully intact.

Alenko scanned the tag and found something that made him sigh in relief. He then turned to us and spoke up saying, "This isn't Charlie. This is another unit."

I glanced at the tag and through the blood, I could read out:

"Staff Sargent Mark Shepard, Whiskey unit"

Alenko then said, "This means that Charlie's still alive, and if they're alive; then maybe they were able to pick up my unit after all. They could still be alive." Alenko's previous look of despair and anger was replaced with a look of hope. Still, I could tell he was still angry about losing another unit to these demon spawns.

As Alenko spoke, I continued to look around the remains of the destroyed vehicles and something very…odd came to mind.

"why is it that this is the only body we found" I asked myself in curiosity? "What happened to all the other bodies than?"

Soon, I saw Simon and Eleanor walk away from where we were and it looked like they we looking around the surrounding area, probably for other bodies or maybe even survivors. Though I doubt there would be any survivors here with the carnage that took place here.

Shortly, I heard a gasp, soon followed by a voice speaking up saying, "What the fuck is that?"

Instantly, I recognized the voice as Eleanor's.

We took off to where she went and when we got to where she was, I could only see her looking ahead further down the road, her body frozen with fear.

I looked further down the road to where she was gazing at, and I saw something that almost looked like an animal of some sorts, but just barely.

Further down the road, I could see a strange, bat looking creature walking down the road towards us. It was "walking" using its wings tipped with what seemed to be a four fingered hand like appendage. It would take a few steps, stop and almost look around; which would be normal aside from the fact that this creature lacked any face what-so-ever. It didn't even have a single eye anywhere on it. In place of a face was a long, needle like arm that was retracted underneath the body. The creature was a tannish-pinkish color, with a red underside that seemed to be covered with blood. I could see a couple of organs hanging beneath its' body.

Jeanette spoke up shocked saying, "What…the hell…is that thing?"

"I don't know" I responded back to her.

Alenko then spoke up saying, "it's heading towards us. Everyone, get out of sight. NOW!"

Upon hearing Alenko, we rushed to retreat back into the dense foliage of the jungle. We ducked down behind some dense ferns and were able to watch as this thing went further down the road. However, I could now see that it wasn't heading for us since the creature walked past where we were, almost like it wasn't even aware of us, which it might not have been at that moment.

The creature continued further down towards the destroyed vehicles and then suddenly stopped. The beast seemed to look around until it noticed the dead, mutilated soldier. It then let out a shriek and began to approach the body. What happened next scared the shit out of me and made me almost vomit and pass out on sight.

The creature jumped off the ground and began to flap its' wings. I then noticed the arm it had come out from underneath the body and grab the corpse by the chest. The creature brought the body closer to it's own, eventually gripping the corpse with its' wings, holding it in place. I then saw the needle like arm under its' body extend outwards, curving and bending like a double jointed arm. The beast raised it's needle arm up over the corpses head. I then heard a sickening cracking and breaking sound as the beast brought its' arm down into the corpses head, breaking through the skull. I then saw the arm throb as well as liquid splash out and overflow from the head of the corpse. It seemed like it was pumping in a substance into the corpse…but for what?

I got my answer when the creature threw the body to the ground and the creature landed back down safely. I then soon saw the corpse begin to shake uncontrollably and trash about. I heard it shriek and scream as the most horrifying thing imaginable began to happen.

The corpse began to change. I saw skin blister and peel away as muscle was being moved and bones and organs being moved or replaced with visible motion apparent under the surface of the skin. I saw long blades pierce right out of the arms and hands, forming long scythe like blades attached to the palms as well as hook like barbs going along the fore arm up to the shoulder. I then noticed the stomach burst apart as the corpses guts burst out, soon followed by a new set of small forearms that also protruded out of abdominal cavity. They seemed rather flimsy but looked like they were meant to hold prey in its' grasp. The corpse's eyes began to transform, one becoming a glowing green color while the other eye turned green and also managed to pop out of its' socket. Finally, the corpse began to stand up from the ground in a slow and unstable fashion until it got up on it's feet. It flailed it's arms in the air and shrieked in an aggressive and unnatural tone.

The corpse had gone through a total transformation and had become one of the creatures that now stalk this island, looking for more victims, but for what purpose was that?

I then heard Brittany say softly, "bloody hell. So that's how they make more of them."

Instantly, the creature's body froze for a second and it spun around with a low growling sound, it's eye gazing over in our direction. It must have heard Brittany. It then began to walk over towards where Brittany was. I saw her duck down as low as she could go to the ground. I lowered myself so I could just see the creature walking towards here, the creature twitching and shaking it's arms.

The being was getting ever closer to Brittany now and was less than a few yards from her. I looked down on the ground next to me as I ducked down to see a rock next to my foot. An idea popped into my head just then. I leaned over to Alenko, who was to my left and I spoke in a whisper saying, "get ready to shoot on my signal."

He nodded as I picked up the rock from the jungle floor, gripping it in my hand. I then reeled my arm back and threw the rock over the ferns we were behind. The rock flew through the air and hit directly on one of the burning husks that was once a HUMVEE. It clanged with a loud sound. The being froze and turned around to glance at the HUMVEE. It then began to sloly approach the burning hunk of metal. Just as it was only a few feet from the HUMVEE, I then said to Alenko, "Now!"

He then stood up from cover and cocked the gun. He then fired in short controlled bursts into the back of the creature. The being shook as it was riddled with bullets. It screeched until Alenko shot it three times in the head. The being then staggered and fell to the ground…unmoving.

Meanwhile, the bat looking creature that had brought the corpse back to life (if you want to call that life), had been moving about the area unsure of what to do. Once it heard the gunfire, it spun around and emitted a shriek. It then took off towards Alenko as fast as it could, running in a very awkward fashion. The being jumped into the air as it lunged itself at Alenko. He aimed at the creature and fired off about six rounds. The rounds tore into the creature, creating very bad wounds. Still it had managed to grab onto him. Alenko dropped his gun as the creature was trying to stab him with its' needle like arm. He was trying to force it off of him, but the creature would not let go. Then, just before the bat creature was about to stab him in the neck, I heard a gun fire twice. Both rounds hit the creature in it's back, tearing flesh apart. The bat like thing went limp and fell off of Alenko. I looked past where the creature was to see Simon pointing the Desert Eagle at Alenko.

Alenko was panting after he had failed to force the creature off. He then looked up at Simon and spoke with a somewhat raspy voice saying, "thanks."

Alenko went to pick up his assault rifle as Simon nodded to him.

We then went stepped out onto the road again, going back to where a destroyed troop transport was. Alenko was leading and just as he rounded to transport, he spoke up saying, "Oh thank god"

We rounded the corner after him to see what he was talking about. I then saw Alenko looking down at the ground, staring at three long green metal crates.

"Guess what's in here, guys" he spoke up with happiness in his voice?

I looked down at the green crates. They were unlabeled and had no markings of any kind on them.

I then looked to my right to see Simon looking down at the crates, speaking to him as he holstered the Desert Eagle in his back pocket saying, "I don't know. Maybe weapons or something?"

Alenko then grabbed one of the crates and pulled it off top. He set it down on the ground and wiped some fresh blood off of the top. He then popped the locks on it and opened the crate.

Inside was a weapon of some type. It looked like a submachine gun with a cylindrical magazine on it, attached to the underside of the weapon. The stock of it was collapsed making the gun shorter. I could see three extra magazines that were also put into the crate in their own separate spaces. There also was a grenade launcher of some type. It seemed to be a launcher that would be attached to a gun. Inside was also a canister that read on the side: 40mm fragmentation rounds.

Alenko looked up and smiled saying, "That's just what it is. All these crates have weapons stored in them."

Alenko then looked took a closer look inside of one of the crates and noticed a touch pad of some type in there. He grabbed it and pulled it out. Activating it, he skimmed through the pad and spoke saying, "turns out that Whiskey unit here was delivering a shipment of weapons from a storage facility to the armory that we need to go to. It says that they were delivering the shipment of: one PP19 submachine gun, a Type 95 battle rifle, One S.C.A.R. H (Special Combat Assault Rifle Heavy), three XM320 grenade launchers, and one M.K.46 machine gun. He looked through the rest of the list and said, "Strange, some of the weapons seem to be missing from the shipment. There should be a bunch of M4A1's, M.K. 14's and L86 LSW's, but there's nothing here."

As Alenko went through and opened up the two remaining crates, we decided to arm ourselves with these guns. After all, we're probably going to need more than just two guns for what's on this island.

I went through the contents and I choose the Type 95. Alenko said that it was a Chinese made battle rifle, an assault rifle class weapon that fired in three round bursts. I grabbed four of the three of the mags from the crate. I took one and loaded it in the gun, behind the trigger. I also decided to attach a grenade launcher to the weapon, which Alenko showed me how to use and reload it.

Jeanette grabbed the PP19 submachine gun. This was a Russian made submachine gun that loaded a 64 round cylindrical magazine firing 7.62mm rounds. Jeanette figured out how to unfold the stock and lock it in place.

Eleanor grabbed the M.K.46 machine gun, an American made machine gun meant for special forces work. It loaded a 100 round box mag attached to the bottom of the gun. Since it was complex to reload, Alenko showed her how to reload the weapon.

Brittany choose the S.C.A.R. H, an American made special forces assault rifle firing 7.62mm rounds. She decided to attach a grenade launcher to her assault rifle as well. This meant that we would have to share the ammo for it. We divided the grenade rounds, three for me and three for her.

Theodore was unfortunately without a gun. Taking notice of this, Alenko leant him his Glock 17 side arm. The pistol was Austrian made and fired 9mm rounds. Theodore decided to take it since it was better than nothing.

Alenko had finished helping the others get familiar with their weapons and he checked the crates one last time for anything else of value. All that remained was one grenade launcher. Not wanting to waste anything, Alenko decided to attach the launcher to his G36C and he grabbed the two remaining grenade rounds.

One we had scavenged all the weapons and ammo from the crates, Alenko then spoke up saying, "Alright, the armory should be down this road about a few miles from here. If we hurry, we can get there before nightfall."

Theodore nodded and said, "alright, hopefully we won't encounter anymore surprise…" he began to say with hope in his tone. However, a loud sound immediately interrupted Theodore, a loud sound that sent fear down the spines of the survivors.

A loud bellowing and roaring sound pierced the smoky air. A sound that brought fear…and death with it. The sound was unnatural, and yet somewhat familiar. Instantly, we raised our weapons in response as we backed up to each other forming a circle, ready to defend ourselves from what was lurking in the area.

"You just had to jinx it, Theo; didn't you" spoke Simon with panic in his voice?

Theodore looked at him and said, "How was I supposed to know?"

Shortly, we heard the sounds of wood breaking and trees falling as something was apparently making its' way through the jungle to the right of the road. Whatever it was, it was moving fast and sounded heavy as its' footsteps echoed from the dense jungle with loud crashing thuds. More roaring sounded, sending fear down my spine. I checked and made sure my Type 95 was cocked and ready to go.

We aimed our guns at the jungle to the right of the road, ready to meet this beast head on. I gazed into the jungle as I saw the silhouettes of trees collapsing as something drew ever closer to us. I could just make out a dark shadow of something really big and intimidating.

Suddenly, the trees in front of us fell to the ground, the crashing echoing around the area as this creature made itself know.

In front of us was a creature that I could only describe as a huge mutated beast that didn't even resemble a human. Rather, it had the posture of a gorilla, walking on it's back legs and using its' massive arms covered in a black, almost plate like material for support. The creature had this plate like material covering most of its' body actually, along with jagged hooks and barbs on the arms as well. The creature's chest seemed to split apart, the plates separating to cover a hole of some kind. The creature's head was frightening, the eyes glowing red , starring us down with a look of anger, rage and hostility. The creature's mouth was covered by a set of mandible like jaws that came apart slightly each time it breathed, the razor sharp blades coated with dried blood. This beastly creature had exposed patches of flesh, some of which were pulsating with an odd yellowish light near the upper arms and around the neck.

The creature starred at us for a few seconds before rearing itself into the air and slamming its' massive club like "hands" down on the ground a few times, shaking the very earth itself. It then roared in anger, a look of murder in its' near lifeless eyes.

The being then took off charging at us. Alenko shouted out saying, "kill it! Kill it now!"

We laid down suppressive fire with our new weapons in an attempt to defeat this oversized brute. However, my heart sank as I saw that our rounds were useless as the bullets ricocheted off of the plate armor covering most of the creature's body. The creature, unfazed, continued barreling down at us. We immediately split up running in different directions, just as it had raised its' arms only to have brought them down where we were standing moments ago.

I had moved a few yards away as I began to fire burst after burst of type 95 rounds into it's back. This seemed to get the creature's attention as it roared in anger and some pain. The beast spun around to face me. It then grabbed one of the empty metal gun crates in front of it and lifted the crate up like it was nothing but a feather. The monster then threw the crate at me at a speed beyond anything natural. I rolled to the side to avoid the crate which missed me by inches.

I then stood up only to see that Eleanor had flanked the creature and set up her new M.K. 46. She mounted the bipod on one of the destroyed HUMVEE's and began to fire off long sustained bursts of fire. The rounds tore into the creature's left upper arm and back. The beast roared in anger as the glowing yellow flesh on its' arms was shredded by the machine gun rounds. The creature almost slumped down to the ground as its' left arm was compromised. The creature managed to get back up, much to our disappointment, and it roared in anger.

Eleanor immediately shouted, "aim for the glowing parts! Its' doing something to it!"

Brittany then pivoted her gun on an angle and put her finger over the grenade launcher's trigger. She aimed down the sight and pulled the trigger. I heard a distinct thump as the grenade was launched out of the launcher. In a second I saw it explode on the beast, shredding its' upper left arm and in the process, blowing it clean off.

The beast roared and screamed as it collapsed to the ground. It seemed like it was done in…that is until it staggered back up and I saw its' chest open up as it seemed to almost breathe in. The beast then shot out a large glowing yellow chunk from its' chest. The massive thing flew towards Brittany and exploded near her, knocking her off of her feet. I could only gaze in horror as I witnessed her collapse to the ground and not move.

"NO" I screamed in shock and anger!

I turned to look at the beast, starring down this creature from hell. My heart sunk into my stomach, my body went cold as I gave this creature a look of hatred and pure anger that could easily match the one it starred back at me with. I then screamed out with anger as I began to fired off every round my Type had into its' body, "DIRTY MOTHERFUCKER! DIE, MOTHERFUCKER!"

My rounds tore into its' other arm, tearing that flesh apart with ease. The creature roared in anger as its' other arm was severed from its' body. The beast collapsed to the ground, withering and growling. It then slowed down to twitching as it seemed to die. I walked over to it, Type in hand as I then saw it was barely alive now. I lifted my foot and slammed it down on its' bloody chest and I aimed the type at its' face. I starred the creature down with a look of cold blooded murder in my eyes.

"For Brittany" I said with an ice cold tone as I pulled the trigger twice. Six rounds tore into its' face, killing the creature instantly.

I lifted my foot off of it and then spat on the corpse.

The beast now dead, I just realized that Brittany was still injured.

I turned and quickly ran to where she was. The others were already around her, checking her condition.

I could see that her eyes were open and she was aware of the others, which was very good. Still, I don't know how bad she was hurt. I got down by her side and looked at her.

She had scrapes and many cuts on her body, but none _too_ severe. However, when I looked down at her legs, I could see that she was hurt.

Her right leg had a huge gash on it, coupled with some burn marks. The blood from the gash had already stained her jeans crimson.

I then spoke saying, "Brittany, your hurt."

She then gave me a questioning look. I then pointed to the gash and burns on her leg.

"Oh, hell" she let out with a groan.

I then asked her, "Brittany can you move your legs?"

She then attempted to move her legs, but I could see her wincing in pain and her gasping for air. I could see both her legs move, but they weren't smooth movements.

"Yeah I can, but it hurts like a bitch" she said in response.

Jeanette looked down at her sister and said to us, "guys, she's going to need medical attention."

Alenko then looked at Jeanette and said, "We need to get her to the armory. Hopefully, there's a medic there."

I then looked at the others as I reloaded my Type 95 saying, "Okay, then we have to be smart about this. I don't know if these things are smart enough to go after us with more determination now that we have someone who's injured; so its' better to be safe then sorry."

With that, I looked at Theodore and said, "Theo, since you have such a small weapon, you should help support her since it won't get in your way."

Theo looked at me for a second and said, "wait, I can't support her for miles. What if we get attacked again?"

I then looked at him with a slight amount of irritation and said, "Then you leave the fighting to us. Get Brittany to a safe and protect her."

Theo then said, "okay."

Alenko then said, "okay, let's get her up then."

Alenko and Theo helped Brittany to her feet, which was a struggle since she was injured, but I know her. She's a fighter. She'll pull through in the end.

We began down the road moving at a slower pace than I would want since we had to deal with Brittany's impaired mobility. I didn't like us being a sitting target out here, but for my Brittany I'll go to hell and back for her.

About a half mile after we started Brittany then spoke up holding back pain in her voice as she said, "Guys, I need to rest…really bad." We helped Brittany down to the ground so she could sit. She spoke up saying, "oh god, it hurts."

To this I went over to her a gently pulled her into a comforting embrace. I responded saying, "Brittany, I know it hurts, but come on. I know you can make it."

She then looked up at me and said, "No, I'm just going to slow you guys down. You'll die because of me."

She then looked up at us and said with a defeated and sullen tone, "You have to go on without me."

"WHAT" responded Jeanette and Eleanor!?

Brittany then whimpered as she moved her leg slightly. She then said, "It's the only way. I can't fight in my condition now and your carrying dead weight."

I looked down at Brittany and said, "No, either we all make it out alive or none of us do." Then I added saying, "no one's getting left behind."

Brittany began to speak to me, but I said, "Brittany, look at me."

She stopped and looked up at me with a curious and pained look. I then responded saying, "no one…is..getting.. left..behind, Britt. We would never do that to any of us, and we certainly aren't going to start now."

Brittany looked at me and I think she realized that I wasn't changing my mind anytime soon. She then sighed and said, "okay, I'll keep going, but I'm going to need more help. I swear to god, the pain gets worse with each step."

I then looked up at Simon and said, "Si, you're the only other one here with a pistol. I need you to help Theodore move her."

Simon nodded and reached down to help Brittany stand up. Theodore supported her right side and Simon her left. We then began to move down the road again, this time a little bit faster. We made it about a mile before we heard something.

Further down the road, we heard the sounds of what appeared to be an engine. I looked at the others and asked, "anyone else hear that?"

Alenko responded saying, "yeah, I recognize it. That's the sound of a Striker APC (Armored Personal Carrier)."

I then realized with hope in my voice, "yeah, and if it's running, then we could use it to get to the Armory."

I then motioned and said, "come on, let's move."

We proceeded further down the road until we came to where the engine noises were coming from. To the right of the road, I saw the APC that Alenko mentioned, but it was off the side of the road, the front part in a ditch. I could see that there were some bodies of dead soldiers around the APC, or at least what looked like soldiers. The closer we got, we realized that some of them were transformed soldiers that became these…things. The others were just dead soldiers, horribly mutilated and butchered, blood pooled around them.

The closer we got to the APC, I began to see that the vehicle itself was intact, but there was blood splattered on the exterior shell as well as claw and slash marks on the hull. I began to question if anyone was still alive in the vehicle or not. That is until I saw the .50 caliber machine gun turret up top swivel remotely towards our direction. We froze, unsure of who…or what was controlling it. I was prepared to think that we would surely be dead, but then I heard a voice speak up over a loudspeaker saying, "Hold up…that's.. that's close enough!"

The voice was female. The voice then said, "who are you? What do you want?"

I then spoke up saying, "Look, we don't mean any trouble. We're just looking for help. We have wounded and we're looking to get to the armory."

The voice then said, "Why should I trust you? The last people who said that tried to kill me."

My mind froze. "Wait a minute…people. Why would people…soldiers…be killing each now?"

I then heard Simon speak up saying, "look, all we need is your help. We just ne…"

However, the voice said, "I need proof I can trust you."

Alenko then spoke softly, "let me handle this."

Alenko then stepped forward and spoke calmly saying, "Ma'am, I know that this is a difficult time right now. I understand why your hesitant to trust us, but I'm a soldier. I work for the company."

There was no response for a few seconds until, "I need your rank and unit ID."

Alenko then spoke saying, "Second Lieutenant Jacobs Alenko. Alpha unit, leader. Employed by ExoAmp corp for island security."

The voice then responded saying, "Okay then…"

Alenko then said, "to whom as I speaking to?"

The voice then said, "fair, I know you, so you should know me. Master Sargent Miranda Tavik, 1st Armored Security Division, APC driver. Hired by ExoAmp for transportation and armored support."

Alenko then said, "Ma'am, we really need your help. We have an injured woman who needs medical attention. Plus, we need a ride to the Armory."

The voice paused for a few seconds, which made me begin to pray that Alenko was able to talk sense into this Miranda person. Then Miranda said, "well, the Striker runs, but she's stuck in a ditch. Aside from that, she runs fine. If you guys can help pull her out, then I can give you a lift to the Armory."

"Alright, so what do we do" I asked?

Miranda then responded saying, "There's a winch attached to the front of the vehicle. If you could attach it to a tree, I can pull it out."

"Okay" I said.

About ten minutes later, we had the winch attached to a tall jungle tree in front of the vehicle.

"here goes nothing" said Miranda.

Suddenly, I heard the electronic mechanisms of the winch begin to wind the cable up. The vehicle then began to slowly pull itself out of the ditch, much to our delight.

"okay, let me bring her onto the road" spoke Miranda.

The vehicle turned around and drove carefully through the jungle foliage to end up on the road.

"I'll lower the ramp for you guys. Put your injured on the med bench in the back" spoke Miranda.

A few seconds later, I heard hydraulics begin to start up as the ramp on the back of the vehicle began to open up. The ramp met the ground with a dusty thud.

We went to the back where the now open ramp was, only to see a woman standing there armed with a pistol. She had brown hair and blue eyes and was wearing a driver's jumpsuit. She looked at us and then must have noticed Brittany because she suddenly got a worried expression and said, "oh god, she looks bad. Get her to the med bench, I'll get the first aid kit."

We then brought Brittany into the Striker's Cargo hold. The hold was cramped, but was taken up by three benches used for seating by troops and on the far right wall was a stretcher that had some basic medical equipment around it. That must have been the med bench.

Simon and Theodore set Brittany down on the med bench. She was groaning with pain and exhaustion from the long walk. 30 seconds later, Miranda had retrieved the first aid kit and approached where we were.

Miranda then got down by Brittany's side and said, "okay, let's see what I can do…"

Miranda noticed that the large gash on Brittany's leg had begun to scab up, but it was likely getting infected. Plus she needed to treat her burns as well.

Miranda looked up and said, "okay miss, you may not like this, but I need to treat the wounds under your jeans. I'm going to have to have you remove them."

Brittany's eyes went wide and said, "uh, you're kidding right? There's no way I'm going to do that…not with all of them here" she said pointing to us.

Miranda then said, "look, unless I treat your wounds…there's a chance they can become infected and with that large gash on your leg…it might get bad enough that it may need to amputated otherwise."

Brittany sighed and said, "okay then, but I only want you and Alvin in here."

I then looked up at her sister's and my two brothers and said, "guys, do you mind waiting outside the APC?"

Simon spoke up saying, "are you crazy, there are those things out there!"

I then said, "Well, you all do have a weapon. Plus, we have the APC's machine gun too."

Simon then groaned and spoke with defeat in his voice, "okay, but if they attack, we might need to retreat back into the APC."

"Fine, now please wait outside" I spoke.

The others left the APC and Miranda closed the ramp up, sealing us in the cargo hold. Miranda then went back to where Brittany was and began to pull out what she needed. Brittany asked me to remove her jeans for her.

I reached towards her and carefully unbuttoned her jeans and unzipped them. I then carefully slid them down off her legs, trying not to cause her anymore pain than what she was already in.

I set her jeans on the floor, leaving her in her pink panties. Miranda then spoke saying, "okay miss, I'm about to begin here. This may sting a bit."

Miranda took a sterile clothe and put some rubbing alcohol on it. Miranda then said, "okay…this is going to hurt a bit."

Brittany nodded and then Miranda proceeded to disinfect her gash. Brittany winced and whimpered as the alcohol made contact with her wound. To comfort her, I grabbed my loves hand and stroked her hair tenderly saying, "it's okay Brittany. It won't last much longer."

She squeezed my hand in response as she was in pain. I just kept stroking her hair, trying to help her.

Miranda finished disinfecting the wound and then proceeded to apply burn medication to Brittany's burns on her leg.

Brittany's expression of pain began to slowly go away as the burning subsided. I looked at my love and said, "See, you made it." I then gave her a kiss on her forehead. She gave me a smile in response.

Miranda then covered Brittany's gash with a sterile wrapping. To top it off, she then gave Brittany a shot of a minor pain reliever.

Miranda then said, "okay, I've done all I could. That should hold until I can get us to the armory."

Brittany said in a slightly weak and disoriented voice (from the pain killer), "thank you, Miranda."

I then said, "Miranda, lower the ramp for the others. I'll tell them we're going to be on the move here."

She nodded and went to the door controls and pressed the drop button. The hydraulics on the door sounded as the ramp began to slowly lower. The ramp hit the ground with a thud as I stuck my head out to speak to the others. I noticed they were all conversing with each other softly as they stood on guard. I then spoke saying, "guys, it's done. Miranda's about to drive us to the Armory, so get in."

They climbed back into the APC and they put their weapons up on the storage netting above each bench. They then took their seats as Miranda then closed the door, the hydraulics sounding.

She then walked away from the controls once the door shut and she began to head for the drivers's seat. She got in and started up all the systems for the vehicle.

"Okay, here we go" she said. I then felt the APC lurch forwards as the vehicle began to drive down the road towards the Armory at a decent pace. I leaned back in the closest bench to where Brittany was at. I gazed at my love, who was now asleep from the effects of the pain killer.

Then, I realized that she really wasn't asleep when I heard her speak up in a drowsy voice saying, "Alvie, can I ask you something?"

I looked at her and responded saying, "Yes, Britt?"

She then sighed and paused for a few seconds before saying, "Do you think we're going to get out of here alive?"

I gave her a look of confusion and said, "Brittany, we're already in an APC going to the Armory, and…"

Brittany cut me off and said, "no, I mean out of this nightmare. Get off of this island alive."

She then said, "I mean, Simon almost died and I almost got killed. How long is this going to keep up before fate stops being so generous?"

I then got up from the bench and went by her side and kneeled down by the stretcher. I grabbed her hand and said, "Brittany, we are going to get out of here alive. Do you hear me, we are? None of are going to die. When we get back to the U.S., we're going to go on a real vacation. Just the two of us."

Brittany then said, "but what if we don't make it? I don't want to become one of…them."

I then grabbed her hand and kissed it softly. I then looked up at her and said, "even if fate will choose that, I'm not going to go down without a fight. I want to live and therefore, I choose to live. We _are_ going to get out of here alive, love."

Brittany then looked up at me and said, "Alvin, can you promise me one thing?"

I then moved a strand of her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her right ear. I then said, "and what would that be?"

She then said, "when we do take another vacation…let's not fly next time, okay?"

I then said to her, "ditto, if I see the inside of another plane, it better be the one that'll get us off this bloody island."

She laughed at me remark and said, "I love you, Alvie."

I then said, "…and I love you."

We then closed in for a long kiss. After a few seconds we broke off and I then said, "I think we still have a ways to go Brittany? Why don't you try and get some sleep?"

She nodded and I saw her close her eyes. I got up from her side and went back to where my bench was. I sat down and leaned back against the wall of the striker.

"We are going to make it out" I said to myself, deep in thought. "we will live to see tomorrow and soon this will be over."

Just then, I heard something speak to me in my head…

"_Pathetic creature, clinging to your false hope. Driving you to a goal you could never possibly achieve. No one will get out alive. The creators demand glorious convergence, and they shall receive it through the blood and bodies of the life of this world. When your lives end as your souls are torn from your bodies by the children of the creators, and you beg for mercy and for the nightmare to end…it will not. In the end, I'll be waiting for you. So be ready…the hour of your downfall draws near…for you all" _Spoke the evil, wretched voice.

I then heard a deep, long demonic laugh that sent shivers up my spine.

I then whispered, "we'll see about that…"

**(A/N: Well, that's the end of this chapter. What can the marker and the 'creator's' have in store for our survivor's? Will this island be their tomb? Or will they find a way out of here? **

**Once again, I'm sorry for the long, long wait with this update. I've been dealing with one crisis situation after another and its' been taking up a lot of my time. Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter and please do review. **

**Also, here are the necromorph breeds in this chapter:**

**Slasher, soldier version- In Dead Space, soldiers and people sporting stasis modules (a machine that can fire a blast of stasis energy used to slow down time around the target, making it move at a snails pace) can be killed and when reanimated, will become what's known as Twitcher's. These necromorphs are very, very fast. They can outrun a sports car and attack with blinding fast pace. For now until I decide how to make twitcher's in this story, they will only be soldier slashers, necromorphs capable of taking a higher degree of damage and using squad like tactics to take down the enemy.**

**Brutes- Brutes are very aggressive and huge necromorphs that kill by pounding their target into a pile of blood and gore. They are created from multiple different corpses fused together to form one of two types of "colony' necromorphs. They have organic, bullet proof armor and can also paunch high explosive organic projectiles from a hole in their chest. They can only do this when injured. They have weak points that are shown with glowing yellow infected tissue, shooting these can cause dismemberment.**

**Infector- Okay ladies and gentleman, here's how the outbreak really starts. The breed that makes more necromorphs…the infector. It's a bat like looking creature that is a pure alien life form. They are only aggressive when scared or when there are no corpses for it to infect. Instead it will try to grapple a living creature and kill it itself and then reanimate it. They are blind, but hunt by smell. They detect the smell of dead, non necromorph corpses. **

**I hope to have the next chapter out soon here, I've even already started it.**

**Also I want to give a shout out to**_** Iluvthechipmunks **_**for being determined to stay here on fanfiction…and its' all because of the wonderful readers and friends that she and all of us have here, including me. For those who want to bash her and her stories, just know this…:**

**She is a good friend of mine and a great author. If you want to mess with her, then you mess with me and all of us who love and support her on here. Trust me; you don't want to be my enemy. **

**Other than that…until next time my fellow readers, writers and friends, stay beautiful and creative…)**

**-MEFN7**


	7. Chapter 4: Reunions and Revelations

**Chapter 4: Reunions and Revelations**

**(A/N: Well, I pleased to have the next chapter for Stranded in a Nightmare out as quick as I did. I had to go through multiple revisions of this chapter to get it just the way I thought you all would like it. This chapter will shed more light on the truth of the necromorphs and ExoAmps' operations on the island. Now I've been thinking for a while about something with this story, and I want to know your opinion of it. **

**I've been planning on including my own original ideas for necromorph breeds that I've been thinking up of, including: the screamer, the infiltrator, the lancer and the exo-hive. These idea's are completely my own (aside from being necromorphs) and do not belong to Visceral Games or EA. I've actually been thinking of submitting these breeds to Visceral Games for them to use in Dead Space 3 or a later game in the series. I really want you to leave a review of this chapter, and also what you think of these breeds. **

**Now, I'm sad to say that this chapter marks the story about almost half of the way complete. However, I have some good news though for people who really liked/like this story. I've been creating a sequel for this story in my mind for about a month now. I've completed half of the storyline for it, but I guess I'll deal with the rest when I come to cross that bridge. **

**Anyways, now on with the storyline and please remember to review, even anonymous reviews are accepted.)**

**(From Simon's perspective, about 20 minutes later)**

"Miranda, how much further to the armory" I asked the Stryker APC driver, Miranda? I had to really shout to let my voice be heard over the loud droning sound of the APC's diesel engine.

I leaned forwards in my seat to get a better look towards the opening that led to the drivers seat in the Stryker. I saw Miranda glance back at me quickly then return her eyes to the road ahead. She then said, "shouldn't be more than about five minutes or so." She too had to shout to let her voice be heard over the engine.

I then responded saying, "good, I can't wait to finally be somewhere on this island that's remotely safe from these creatures."

I leaned back in my seat and I looked to my left to see that Jeanette had managed to doze off in her seat. Her head was leaned against a metal grate to the right, which seemed rather uncomfortable. I reached over lightly wrapped my left arm around her left shoulder and pulled her close to my body. I embraced her softly and I could see that her head switched positions and she leaned her head on my arm. I could just barely hear her sigh as she then drifted back into full slumber. My movement had apparently waked her a little.

My eyes drifted down to the desert Eagle that I was holding in my hands. I looked over the pistol and checked the safety. I suddenly found myself thinking about these creatures. As strange as it seemed, I actually felt a little remorse for killing them. They were, after all, once humans…people that had friends and families and real lives. It made me feel sorry for both killing them but more so, that their family and friends will probably never learn of how they really died. This was probably good since word of these creatures getting out would probably cause conspiracy theorists to run amok, governments to panic and maybe even collapse and more importantly, chaos in general to break out all over the globe.

I then heard Miranda speak up with relief in her voice saying, "alright, here we are…the armory. Now, we just need to get clearance to enter."

I then heard a voice speak up over the radio, a male voice with an authoritative tone to it. He spoke saying, "Striker 157, this area is currently in lockdown and you are not scheduled for arrival. Identify your purpose of being here, over."

Miranda then activated the mic on her end of the radio and spoke up saying, "armory, this is Striker 157 driver Miranda Tavik, I have non-Exoamp personal on board, one of which is wounded, but stable. I'm trying to take them somewhere safe. Requesting permission to enter gate."

The man spoke back to Miranda saying, "Tavik, that's a negative. This area is in lockdown, we can't have non-ExoAmp personal in the armory or for that matter, on this island. Request denied."

Miranda then shouted saying, "look, did you hear me? These are untrained civilians, one being wounded. They need help or they aren't going to survive on this island. I need you to allow us to enter."

The man spoke saying, "Tavik, that's a breach of security. I cannot authorize…"

However, Alenko had stood up and approached the mic that Miranda was using. Interrupted the man he said, "Sir, this is Second Lieutenant Jacobs Alenko of Alpha unit. We need you to allow us to enter. I can guarantee you that these civilians won't cause any problems. They are survivors from a plane crash on the island. They need somewhere safe right now."

There was no response on the other end.

Alenko then added saying, "You can debrief them on what they know if you need to."

The man then responded saying, "Miranda, you have permission to enter, but be advised that all non-ExoAmp personal on that Striker will be detained for debriefing. Proceed to garage bay 4. Armed personal will be waiting."

Mirnada then spoke saying, "roger that, over and out."

The gates to the armory began to open up as the Striker drove through.

I then heard Alvin say in shock, "Wait, so they're going to detain us? Since when have we become the bad guys?"

Alenko looked at Alvin and shook his head. He then spoke, "Alvin, you guys aren't going to be thrown into containment cells if that's what you're thinking. You guys shouldn't even be on this island since it's a secure area. All they're going to do is take you to a room for questioning. They need to know that you're not a security risk like a spy or something like that."

Alvin then leaned back in his seat and said, "well, I don't like it."

Alenko then said assuring, "Guys, I promise I won't let them throw you into cells. I'll make sure you get everything you need: food, beds, weapons and medical help for Brittany."

Alvin then said, "Okay, I don't like it, but I have no choice. If it means that Brittany will get help, then I'm all for it."

Miranda drove the APC through the Armory, which from what we could see, turned out to be a complex of three buildings compared to one lone structure. Alenko explained that the Armory had a Barracks for personal, a command building that provided: a medical bay, comms center and vehicle garages, as well as the actual armory building itself.

Miranda drove the APC into a garage in the command building and shut off the engine. She got up and began to move towards the ramp controls at the rear of the APC.

Alenko then said to us, "okay guys, do what these people ask you to. They aren't exactly ecstatic about you all being here."

We stood up and got ready to exit the APC. I woke up Jeanette who had only heard half of what was going on. I had to explain the situation to her and, like Alvin, she didn't like what was going to happen.

Alvin pulled Brittany up off the stretcher and supported her injured leg.

Miranda hit the control button to lower the ramp. The ramp began to swing downwards as the hydraulics sounded very noisily. Alenko was standing in front of us and Miranda to our right.

As the ramp lowered I noticed 7 soldiers standing on the other side, waiting for us. Once the ramp was about ¾ of the way down, one of the soldiers spoke with a very heavy Eastern European accent, "alright, drop your weapons and put your hands behind your heads. Slowly step out of the vehicle."

The other soldiers were aiming their guns at us. I felt very uneasy and so did the rest of us. All except one…

"Wait, is that you Yuri" spoke Alenko with shock and curiosity in his voice?

I then noticed the man with the eastern European accent stare back at Alenko saying with shock, "Alenko?"

Alenko then stepped down the ramp and I noticed that the other soldiers had lowered their weapons and all had looks of surprise on their faces. Alenko then spoke to the man named Yuri saying, "In the flesh and alive as ever."

Yuri then stepped forwards and saluted Alenko saying, "hot damn sir, it's great to see you again. We all thought you were goners for sure."

Alenko then said, "I'm glad to see that the rest of you made it out alive."

To this Yuri and a few of the others looked down and held their heads.

Alenko the said, "what?"

Yuri responded saying, "um, what you see in front of you is all that's left of Alpha sir. We lost two other men in our retreat, Private Sherman and Lance Corporal Allesia."

Alenko then held his head in remorse as the others did. Alenko then looked back up and said, "well, at least most of Alpha made it then."

Another one of the soldiers responded in a thick German accent saying, "I'm glad you're alive sir, but we have orders to detain the non-ExoAmp personal."

Alenko then looked up at the soldier and said, "who gave you those orders?"

"General Marcus Abrams, sir. He's up in the comms center. He said he wants to debrief you personally."

Alenko sighed and said, "ugh…Abrams."

I then said to Alenko, "what's wrong with General Abrams?"

Alenko then looked behind him towards me and said, "nothing really other than he's a company hardliner. He was personally stationed on the island by our company's CEO. He's a cold, calculating bastard who'd be willing to give his life to keep company secrets classified."

I then heard Theodore speak up saying, "and your worried he might be the cause of all this?"

"not so much that, rather I'm worried he's authorized illegal research projects and has been keeping us in a communications blackout about it" spoke Alenko in response.

Yuri then spoke saying, "Alenko, I'm sorry to interrupt, but we need to detain your friends. Don't worry though. They'll be under our protection and supervision."

"okay, Yuri" responded Alenko. He then turned around and said, "alright, I talk to you guys in a while. I've got to go deal with General Abrams."

Alenko walked away from us and went off towards the other end of the garage where there was a door with sign above that read, "Comms Center"

Yuri meanwhile looked at us and said, "alright, you all come with us. We'll take you to the debriefing room."

Miranda then spoke up suddenly saying, "hey, what am I supposed to do here?"

Yuri then said, "I don't know. Work on your APC. Do whatever you want driver. You don't have any orders."

We followed the soldiers out of the garage as they escorted us to our debriefing. As we walked through a different door than the one Alenko went through, we found ourselves in a long hallway with multiple doors on each side. As we proceeded down, some of the doors lead offices, others to storage rooms. However, one that we soon came up on had a two way mirror peering into a room with one large table and multiple chairs around that table. Above the door, there was a sign that read "debriefing".

One of the soldiers entered a code onto a key pad and soon the door swung open. We were motioned inside and told by Yuri to sit down. We all took a seat with Alvin having to help Brittany sit down.

Yuri then looked behind him and said, "Alpha, wait outside."

The unit saluted and began to leave the room.

Alenko then spoke up saying, "except you Claus. I need you to stay."

Claus spoke with a thick German accent saying, "alright, Yuri"

The doors closed behind the rest of Alpha and soon we were alone with two soldiers, Yuri and Claus.

Yuri then spoke to us saying, "alright. Since Alenko seemed to trust you extensively, I'm going to do the same unless you do something to violate that trust."

Yuri then sat down and said, "now, why don't you tell me how six civilians managed to find a top secret, research island?"

(meanwhile, from Alennko's perspective; during debriefing with General Abrams)

"God damn it, Alenko. You've put the company's secrets and our research at risk with bringing these unauthorized civilians to the island" yelled Abrams in a furious tone as we sat in his office for my debriefing.

More like my own personal chewing out.

Abrams then said, " Alenko, you know you are in violation of the contract you signed when you joined ExoAmp. The part that said that you must not compromise the security of any ExoAmp facility or personal." He then paused and soon spoke with a stern voice saying, "I could have you fired and sued for this. So tell me, why did you go through all this trouble to save these six civilians anyways?"

I leaned back in my chair and looked at Abrams who stared me back in the eyes with a look of hate and anger. Same old Abrams, no care for anyone else. The only thing that matters is his pay check and the good of the company. For a man who is supposed to be respected and wise with strategy, he can't seem to get my own strategy.

"With all due respect sir, just because we're mercenaries doesn't mean we need to be heartless. I aided and protected these people because they needed it. They wouldn't have lasted 2 days on their own, not with what I've seen on this island. My squad barely lasted 5 minutes against those things. You see, money isn't all that matters here…humanity is what matters" I said in response trying to reason with this black and white idealistic company hardliner.

The general just laughed at my response and said, "Alenko, come on. What pile of crap is that? 'humanity is what matters here'. Soldier, you're a fucking mercenary, not a priest. You joined the company to make money, to use your talents as a soldier of fortune. All you need to worry about is your next pay check."

I glared him in the eyes as he spoke with such closed mindedness. God, it made me want to punch him. However, all that would do is put me in the detainment cells.

I then said in response, "sir, in times like this, cooperation and humanity are what makes us survive. These creatures are ruthless, brutal and evil. Our humanity is the one thing we have that can bring us through this. Our concern for others around us is what separates us from these things. These creatures don't even understand that."

The general just frowned and spoke with hostility saying, "Alenko, you have an impressive service record: Somalia, Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq. You have the skill, but this makes me even question why we even hired you. I'm starting to think that you're not even fit for mercenary work."

I then sighed and rubbed my temples in frustration. I then looked up and spoke saying, "So what then, you going to fire me? Ship me off the fucking island? General, we have ravenous demon spawns running amok on the island. You want to talk about a breach of security? Talk to the motherfucker who caused all of this."

"Besides, if we want to survive, I suggest we stop tearing each others throats out and start looking for a way to stop these things."

The general then was about to speak when suddenly an alarm began to sound. The high pitched noise blaring throughout the base. Soon, a male voice began to speak throughout the base saying, "all security forces, we have a hostile force approaching the front gate. All forces arm and prepare to defend the base. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill."

I then reached down for my G36K that was by the chair I was sitting in. I picked it up and cocked the rifle. I then spoke saying, "well general, we can continue chewing me out later. If you excuse me, I think I hear some poor motherfuckers begging for an ass kicking."

I then opened the door to his office and ran out the door. As I was leaving, I heard the general mutter something. I couldn't hear real well over the alarm, but I thought he said, "what have I done?"

(Meanwhile; back to the perspective of Alvin)

"How did those things find us" I heard Brittany speak up in panic as she cocked her S.C.A.R. H assault rifle?

I heard Brittany speak with panic and fear in her voice as we readied our weapons for these creatures arrival. I couldn't help but both ponder and feel guilty at the same time. I was wondering about who…or what this voice could be from. I was wondering how it knew our almost every move. However, at the same time, I kept feeling guilty knowing that I was the cause of getting us all into this mess.

However, that didn't matter right now. All that did was one thing and one thing alone…

Survival.

As I looked at Brittany, I could see that she had a strong will to fight, but her condition wasn't good enough. She still had the wounds on her leg that had not received proper medical attention yet. This made me worried that she would get herself killed.

I looked at Brittany and said, "Britt, you need medical attention, not fighting. You're still wounded."

Brittany looked at me with shock on her face, "Alvin, these people need all the help they can get. I have to fight."

I looked at her and said, "Fine Brittany, just make sure you hang back. I don't want to lose you."

As we loaded our guns, I heard the door to the room swing open and slam into the wall. I spun around with my Type 95 in hand believing that one of those creatures was at the door. However, I felt myself sigh with relief as I saw that Alenko was standing in the doorway with his G36K assault Rifle in hand.

Alenko spoke to us out of breath as he apparently had ran to us, "guys…we got a…problem here. I need you all to follow me. We…need to defend the base."

We made sure our guns were cocked as we then left the room with Alenko, running after him as we left the command center and went into the garage where the APC and Miranda were. As the door opened, I noticed movement across the garage as I saw Miranda trying to hold off two of these creatures. They both had scorpion like stinger tails, unhinging jaws and one inch claws on each hand (LEAPERS). Miranda was firing her pistol at these two creatures as they were closing in on her, which was by some fuel drums and crates. Miranda fired six rounds into the first creature. The rounds tore into its' head and back, killing the creature as it fell limp on the floor. The second creature however leapt into the air and pounced on Miranda.

The creature pinned her to the floor as Miranda was grunting and screaming for help.

Alenko then shouted, "guys, assist."

I raised my Type 95 and fired at the creature, but only one round hit its' back. The creature ignored the round and raised its' tail and brought it down into Miranada's torso. I heard her scream in pain. Just when I thought the creature was going to finish her off, Yuri raised his AEK-971 assault rifle and fired at the creature, the 7.62mm rounds tore into its' back, tearing chunks of flesh out. The creature roared and jumped off of her and turned to face us. It opened its' mouth and its' fangs lowered. The being hissed and roared in anger as it flicked its' tail at us.

It then took off sprinting towards us. I then screamed, "shoot the meat sack!"

We let out a hailstorm of bullets into the creature. The sheer amount of rounds tore into it like a hot knife. It staggered and roared until Theo fired a 9mm Glock round into its' head. The creature stopped moving for a minute and then slump to the ground dead.

With the beast dead, we ran towards Miranda who was on the ground bleeding out from the horrible stab wound. As we reached her, I heard a chorus of roars and shrieks from beyond the walls of the complex. Soon, I began to hear automatic gunfire sounding out.

Next, I heard a voice speak out over the base speakers saying, "attention, enemy forces are attempting to breach the front gates. All available squads, push them back!"

Alenko then spoke to us saying, "guys, I got Miranda. Go to the front gate and assist the other squads. Alpha, go with them and push those motherfuckers out of here!"

Yuri then spoke saying, "Sir, yes, Sir."

Yuri then shouted, "alpha, you six, with me."

We then took off towards the wall where we could clearly begin to see squads of soldiers up on the walls firing beyond our field of view on the other side. One the corners of the walls, I could see the turrets firing also, laying down a hail storm of suppressive fire.

Once we reached the wall, Yuri then spoke saying, "alright, alpha stay down here and kill anything that gets through that gate. If it ain't human, it dies. Understood!?"

The soldiers from Alpha responded saying, "roger, sir."

Yuri then said, "I need you six up top with me."

I then nodded and said, "gotcha Yuri."

We then followed Yuri to a part of the wall where there was a ladder going up to the top platform.

We climbed up one by one and set up on the wall. Once I got up and got to the edge of the wall, I felt my heart sink into my stomach. I stared at the twitching and roaring, mutilated bodies of these creatures on the other side. There must have been easily a hundred of them. I looked down and aimed my gun at the gate as I heard loud banging and clawing at the gate. In front of it, I saw creatures of various types trying to work their way inside. I saw horribly mutilated creatures that were actually throwing up on the gate (PUKERS). They were puking large amounts of acid, trying to burn through the gate. The sound of their vomiting was horribly disgusting.

Other creatures were clawing at the gate, not doing too much damage.

Yuri then yelled "Light them up! Push them back!"

We aimed our guns and joined the forces of the other squads and turrets in trying to kill and push these things back. I fired my Type 95 into the horde of creatures unsure if I was doing anything based solely on the sheer number of creatures. Deciding to do more, I aimed my grenade launcher and fired off the one round in the launcher. The grenade slammed into the horde, exploding in a hail of fragments. The explosion killed at least 7 of them and knocked several others off of their feet. I then slid open the launcher and pulled out the spent 40mm shell. I slid in another grenade and slid the launcher shut. I then stood up and just as I was about to fire, I noticed a very unusual creature scaling the wall with its' blades. This creature was very freakish to say the least. It had a head, but it was just bone. Virtually no flesh remained on it at all. The creature had rows of long, jagged teeth like that of a shark. The creature had no eyes just like the vomiting ones. The being had patches of scabbed flesh and skin on its' entire body. What scared me the most were its' blades. It had three, but in a very unusual orientation. The right arm had a regular hand with claws on the end of each finger, but it also had a one foot blade that came out of the elbow aiming upwards. The other arm was the real killing machine. It had a nearly three foot long blade where the fore arm and hand should be, and the other side had another one foot blade that aimed upwards. The creatures legs were very bony and had what seemed to be intestines coiling around them.

**(A/N: This everyone is one of my original breeds of Necromorph that I have created that I have dubbed, 'the Lancer' due to its' massive three foot blade. This creature is rather intelligent nearing that of a Stalker as can be seen by its' ability to know how to climb a wall to get to the humans and our survivors. This breed actually works in a pair with another Lancer, or they may also be seen with Screamers, another original Necro breed. Lancers have very fast reaction times, but their one weakness is that due to their intelligence, they actually retain some degree of self-preservation, meaning that they will run from a fight if they are about to die.)**

The creature was actually managing to climb a metal wall by digging their smaller blades into the wall scaling it by a form of vertical combat crawling. The being leapt up onto the wall and brought down its' three foot blade onto a soldier, cleaving him in half. The creature then turned and brought its' smaller one foot blade on the same are upwards into a soldiers head, impaling his head on the blade. The creature then yanked the arm forwards and ripped the now dead soldiers head clean off.

I saw Eleanor grab her M.K. 46 and aim it at this being, firing off sustained amounts of suppressive fire. The creature was riddled with machine gun rounds but it wouldn't let up. It then began sprinting towards her with its' arm with the huge blade in front of it, making it now behave like a battering ram. I gazed in horror as I saw the creature come within mere inches of Eleanor, but luckily, she dove aside just as the creature would have cut her apart. I then saw another soldier turn around after reloading his assault rifle from firing at the creatures beyond the wall. He noticed this creature slow to a stop as it then turned to face Eleanor again.

The soldier pivoted his assault rifle and put his hand on the pump mechanism of an under barrel mounted 12-guage shotgun. He fired into the creatures back, the slug tearing into its' body. The creature roared and turned around, slashing its' blade at the air. The soldier pumped his shotgun and fired again. This slug tore into its' head, ripping it from its' shoulders. The creature however, flailed its' large blade and began to stumble about now, slashing randomly in the air. The soldier pumped his gun, the spent shell was ejected and hit the ground with a light thud. The beast froze and suddenly turned to face the soldier. It then took its' blade and impaled the soldier. The blade went clear through one side and out the other, blood pouring out. The soldier gasped as the being lifted him up. The beast grabbed the soldier with its' hand and impaled the soldier two more times, blood spraying as the soldier grunted and screamed. The beast then threw the soldier in the air and caught him on its' two rear blades. The beast then jerked its' arms and ripped the soldier in two, tossing the body to the ground. The beast flailed it's arms in the air in hostility and rage.

I then saw a female soldier come up from behind and fire her AA-12 full auto shotgun into the creature's back. She fired eight 12-guage shells from the twenty round drum magazine. The shells tore into the creature, making it stagger and shake with each impact into the creature's body. After the eighth shell, the creature twitched and stepped forwards, then fell to the ground with a thud.

We returned our attention to the base perimeter where these creatures were trying desperately to still get in. We continued to lay down suppressive fire into the monstrous horde of creatures. One by one, they began to fall to our defensive stand, but there were still dozens upon dozens of them, all screaming with rage and blades and claws covered in blood, and a look of murder in their eyes. I saw that the creatures that were vomiting on the door were now managing to melt more of the door, to the point where they could now vomit inside of the base.

I heard a soldier yell, "light them up!" Soon, more gunfire began to add to the already chaotic and audible assault of the noise of the battle. I saw some of these vomiting creatures begin to fall to the ground, unmoving.

We continued to lay down fire into these creatures, and soon I heard an ear piercing scream that made my ears ring for several seconds after it stopped. I stopped firing as I looked around for the source of the sound, but I couldn't find where it came from. However, I soon got my answer as I saw two creatures run out towards the now partially destroyed gates. One was the exact same type of creature that the female soldier with her AA-12 had killed just minutes ago. The other…was something new altogether.

This creature looked strangely female. The creature had an enlarged chest with what seemed to be lungs sticking out of its' chest, where its' breasts should be. The creature was unique in that it had absolutely no visible weapon on it apart from some one inch claws. The creature had patches of exposed flesh and bone all along it's torso going down to its' legs. I could see that its' head was rather…odd. The head had almost no skin on it, but it seemed as though it separated slightly each time it breathed. The creature stopped running and quickly looked up at us. Suddenly, I saw its' head split apart revealing a circle of sharp teeth all around. The beast then let out an ear piercing scream as it roared in ferocity. I felt myself stagger and almost black out, it was so intense. The creature then sprinted for the gate and leapt through an opening along with the other creature with the huge blade.

**(A/N: This creature here is another original necromorph breed that I have called "the Screamer." This necromorph is unique in that it functions more as a support unit than a forward assault unit. This breed attempts to stun prey with an ear piercing scream, allowing other necromorphs to close in and kill. This creature is made exclusively from female corpses, just like the Spitter. The one main difference is that it is a support unit, not assault.) **

I heard a German soldier speak up, "holy hell, what are those!"

I then heard another trooper yell, "Shoot them! Rip them to shreds!"

I then heard Alenko and the rest of Alpha lay down suppressive fire on these two beings. We moved to the opposite wall to help support Alpha. We then noticed that these creatures took off in a sprint towards Alpha. The female creature stopped short and began to growl. Its' head then split apart and it let out an ear piercing scream. I felt dazed from the sheer sound, and unfortunately, so did Alpha. I saw one soldier drop his gun as he gripped his ears and screamed in pain. The other being took advantage of this opportunity and roared as it raised its' blade up, blood dripping off.

The creature then sprinted for the soldier and reared back its' blade. I gazed in horror as I saw it bring the blade through the soldier, cutting him in half.

The other creature that was screaming noticed another soldier that was still dazed from its' scream. This being then lunged itself towards this soldier and pinned her to the ground. I saw the creature dig its' claws into the soldier's chest, drawing blood. It then growled as it stared her dead in the eye. Finally, the being appeared to scream with all its' might right in the soldier face. I could see the soldier's head begin to throb. Finally, The soldier's head exploded, popping apart like a ripe melon. The now dead soldier went limp on the ground. This beast stood up and shrieked in victory.

However, it would be short lived as I saw that Alpha had recovered from this creature's scream. The two beasts turned to face the rest of Alpha. Not wanting them to suffer anymore loses, we laid down fire into the creatures. Our combined crossfire tore them to shreds, their bodies falling to the ground.

By now, the gate was almost entirely destroyed. The creatures began to climb over the gate and pour into the base. I noticed that other squads that were combat ready had begun to arrive to provide additional support. The beasts spread out around the base as they began to go after various base personal. Just then, I heard something that sounded over the carouse of screams and roars.

I heard the sound of engines.

Suddenly, I then heard a voice sound over the base comms. The male voice said, "Attention armory facility, this is Commander Macmillan of Armored Division Task Group 36. Per request from the C.O., the Calvary is here!"

Just then I saw an armored column of Tanks and IFV's begin to appear from the road that lead to the base. I noticed a variety of tank types, but the most common were M1A2 Abrams and T-80 Russian Tanks. Backing them up was another line of IFV's, including Stryker's and M2A2 Bradley IFV's. Altogether, there were 12 vehicles. With the noise from the vehicles droning over anything else, the creature's turned their attention to these vehicles. Almost immediately, they began to charge as some other creatures began to fire some foul tannish ooze at the vehicles.

In response, the commander of the division then sounded saying, "Send these fuckers back to hell!"

Then the main guns of the vehicles began to go off, firing shells and bullets into the massive horde of creatures. The tanks fired their cannons in succession, the shells exploding and sending limbs and bodies from these creatures flying around the area. Meanwhile, the chainguns of the Bradley IFV's and the machineguns of the tanks and IFV's saturated the area in heavy fire. The perimeter of the wall became a killing ground as the creatures began to drop by the dozens.

However, something unexpected made the fight turn for the worse. I heard a low pitch bellowing sound as I saw something charging through the jungle, toppling trees with ease. Just then, I saw something leap out of the jungle and fall onto of a T-80 tank, crushing it like a bug.

What I was staring at…was one big, pissed off, ugly creature. This creature was even bigger than the gorilla postured creature that had injured Brittany, and that creature was already the size of a semi-truck. This thing…was much bigger. It stood maybe about 15 feet high and had three legs to it: one in the back attached to a bloated hunk of flesh, most likely the creature's torso or stomach; plus the two up front, both ending in a large claw like hand that had a five inch blade tip, plus hooks and barbs going up the arms, which seemed to be made from bone. However, they seemed to be made from the bones of multiple corpses as evident by partial skeletons in the arms. The creature's head seemed to be normal (at least in terms of these creatures), but it had a big opening for the mouth.

After crushing a tank with ease, the commander then shouted, "focus fire on the big ass one!"

All of the vehicles began to fire their weapons into the large behemoth like creature. Explosions and bullets were hitting it, but like the gorilla like creature, this one had some type of bulletproof plating to it. The bullets were useless and the tank shells were doing less damage than they have been.

Meanwhile, we didn't let up fire on these creatures, attempting to kill both the this massive being, as well as the horde of smaller creatures. We were burning through too much ammo, but thankfully, we had the turrets and the armored column backing us up. I prayed for an end to this battle as I was now down to my last Type 95 magazine.

This creature then walked over to another tank, an Abrams, and it lifted up its' right arm. Then, it brought it down into the tank, the arm actually managing to go through the armor, piercing into it. The creature lifted the tank up off the ground and threw it into the air, the tank landing upside down on the road, disabled.

The beast then skewered an IFV with both arms and proceeded to rip it in half, then throwing the two pieces away like they were nothing but paper. Soon, luck turned to our side as an Abrams placed a tank shell right into one of the bony arms, blowing it clean off. The beast roared in anger and slumped to the ground. However, it wasn't going to give up too easily as it then suddenly shot a new arm out of its' mouth, this one had a very fine needle like tip with a glowing hunk of flesh attached to it, and began to crawl towards the column.

The creature brought its' new limb down into a T-80 Tank, piercing into the rear. Suddenly, the tank exploded as the creature hit either a fuel tank or the ammo storage. The explosion knocked us off our feet and blew the new limb off of this massive creature.

When I managed to stand up, I looked out towards the creature and saw that the exploding tank had killed about half of the horde. Thank god for diesel, huh.

I then noticed that this massive creature slumped to the ground, struggling to get back up, growling in hostility. However, I soon saw it slump to the ground, unmoving.

The remaining creatures were clawing at the vehicles, but doing nothing more than scratching them. The only thing doing damage were the remaining vomiting creatures and these ooze spitting creatures. The six of us fired off our last bit of ammo into the horde, finishing the fight. One by one, the remaining creatures, about fourteen of them, began to drop dead.

Finally, only one was left. It looked up at us and roared in anger just as Eleanor shot it dead with her M.K. 46. Finally, I heard something that was all too familiar, and welcoming.

Silence. The area was littered with blood, organs, limbs and bodies. The stench was beginning to get horrible. I saw blast marks and shrapnel cover the area. Beneath our feet, the wall platform was covered with bullet casings.

With no enemy reinforcements in sight, we climbed down the wall and went back towards Alpha. I saw the remaining soldiers in Alpha standing over the two bodies of their fallen comrades.

We approached them and Jeanette spoke up saying, "Well, I think that's all of them."

Claus then looked at her and said, "Yeah, damn bastards are fucking tough. They would have broken through if not for our armor support."

Theodore then spoke saying, "I'm surprised that they didn't retreat, with what they were up against."

I then said, "Well, they definably aren't afraid to die. But how did they find us? More specifically, what lead so many of them to us?"

Yuri then shook his head and said, "I have no idea, but it looks like something's controlling them."

Yuri then said, "Look, let's find Alenko and get more ammo. Who knows when they'll be back?"

Simon then nodded and said, "Agreed."

We then proceeded back into the garage where we saw that the base personal were moving about, apparently following orders.

This was apparent by the presence of what appeared to be an officer in the garage, who was giving squads orders. I managed to overhear a few things.

"Charlie, I want your unit to secure the perimeter. Make sure there aren't more of those things skulking about out there" he said. "Omega, I want you to secure some of the bodies for autopsy. Gamma, I want you to put our dead in body bags and collect their dog tags."

Meanwhile, we made our way to where Alenko was. He was standing over a white bag with a pair of dog tags on top of it.

As we approached, he said, "She…didn't make it."

I leaned over and read the dog tags on top of the bag: Master Sargent Miranda Tavik, 1st Armored Security Division.

I felt myself sigh in sadness. Yet another life lost to these…monsters. This nightmare has to end. We have to make it end, for all those who died here.

Alenko turned to face us and said, "Well, at least we managed to stop them from overwhelming us. That's a start."

Alenko then said, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to talk to Abrams."

We then saw Alenko walk over to the officer giving out orders, who was apparently the general.

I heard Alenko say, "Sir, we need to talk. I think you know what's really going on."

"Alenko, not now. I got a base to secure, bodies to get to autopsy and squads to debrief. Unless this is of dire importance, it has to wait" spoke the general as he then turned to face another squad.

Alenko then said, "Sir, make time. Things are getting more dangerous by the hour on this island. These creatures came from the labs on this island, I just know it. If they did, then they must be part of a project that you authorized since all ExoAmp projects must be cleared by a C.O. before they can be implemented."

He then paused and spoke with a hint of anger in his voice, "which means that you must have approved of this."

The general looked at Alenko and said, "Alenko, I never would clear something like this. I would have known damn well the repercussions of what would have happened." The general said this as he rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous fashion.

Alenko then said, "Abrams…I know your lying. That was just pure bullshit. Now, you tell me what the hell was going on in those labs…or I tell everyone how you were responsible for this."

The general then looked around and saw several other soldiers staring at him in confusion. They must have over heard their conversation.

The general then looked at Alenko and said, "Now listen here, you keep making wild accusations towards me Alenko and I'll have you shot at sunrise. I know nothing."

The general then spoke with a neutral tone saying, " Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a matter to attend to in my office."

The general walked away from Alenko and through a door at the back of the garage. He disappeared from sight.

Alenko groaned and then walked back over to where we were. He looked up at us and said, "well, now you know why I don't like our 'illustrious' general. The bastards such a hardliner that he'd be willing to sacrifice each and every one of us just to maintain the secrets on this island.

Yuri then spoke up saying with an obvious remark saying, "you know he's lying, right Alenko?"

Alenko then nodded and said, "Of course I know, I just have to find out about what."

Just then, a voice rang out over the base speakers, "Attention, Second Luitentient Alenko please report to the C.O. Alenko to C.O."

Yuri then said, "well, maybe you'll be able to get some answers. I just hope that he's not going to detain you or something."

Alenko then began to walk away, but stopped shortly after and said, "me too, my friend. Me too."

**(A/N: Well, after multiple revisions, I finally managed to post the next chapter of Stranded in a Nightmare. I think it turned out well, though the ending could have been better. Still, I like the chapter. **

**So what will happen now? Will the general tell Alenko the truth? Will he be detained to maintain the secrets of the island? **

**Now, I really do want my readers to leave a review, specifically on the two original breeds of necromorph in this chapter: the Lancer and the Screamer. Next chapter marks the introduction of more original breeds as well as more tension and maybe…romance?**

**Until then, stay beautiful and creative my fellow readers, writers and friends…)**

**-MEFN7 **


	8. Author's Note: Update Time

AUTHOR NOTE: UPDATE STATUS AND NEW CONTENT ALERT

To all it may concern who still are reading this story. I know I haven't updated in a long while. I've been busy juggling College, personal life and the resolution of an emergency situation that I dealt with about one of my friends.

Be aware that I am still WORKING on the story, but a new complication has emerged…Dead Space 3.

I played and beat the game. It was amazing, from the weaponry to the environments, and even to the new necromorphs and information of the series. The problem is that the plot of dead space 3 redefines things I thought I knew about the series and answers some of the stuff I've guessed with. Incorporating this into the storyline in a way that makes sense will take a while.

This is good in that you'll be getting new necromorphs and a new understanding of the series and story. The bad…the next chapters going to take longer than I had planned. I will get it out as fast as I can.

That's pretty much it, other than I'm sad that dead space 3 might be the end of the series.

If anything else changes, I'll be sure to notify you as soon as I can.

Please bear with the wait here and do keep in mind what's going on in my life/has been going on.

Until next chapter, stay beautiful and creative my fellow readers and writers.

-MEFN7


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